


The Experiment

by CreativePoptart



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Flashbacks, Memories, Minor Character Death, Named Reader, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Papyrus (Undertale) Knows More Than He Lets On, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reader has a Description, Reader is named, Slow-ish burn, Soul Bond, Soulmates, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2019-11-16 10:45:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 23
Words: 64,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18092822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CreativePoptart/pseuds/CreativePoptart
Summary: A human has fallen into the Underground, there is nothing new there. This human, however, carries a rarity unseen by monsters ever before. Gaster is determined to find out what makes this human different than all the others, but his sons get swept up into the experiment he tries to carefully craft away from them.





	1. And So It Begins

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the story that I have been hinting at for awhile now! We are going to see exactly where this takes us and hopefully it's a good show for us all. This story can be read as a reader-insert, as that was the original intention, but I have named the character in later chapters and given a description.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The human has fallen and Gaster begins his observations.

He had it for the first time, a unique and special human with an equally special soul. One that he could use test and discover new things about the human world above them all. The possibilities were amazingly boundless, and could serve to unlock some key elements of the Surface that monsters had been missing for quite some time. Additionally, this could serve, should all else fail, as their ticket out of the Underground for good.

 

There was so much that he needed to do, so many experiments he needed to perform on this rare and perfect human, but that would come at a later time. He would be patient, all would come in due time. For now, he needed to contain the human appropriately, as it was currently shrieking and tearing at the fabric walls with fervor and an animalistic craziness.

 

It appeared to be very upset, to say the absolute bare minimum, as it was attempting to scale what little it could in an escape from the confines of the windowless, fabric coated room. Much of the fabric had been torn down, ripped into long shreds and tossed about in a frenzy, and he noted he would have to replace them later. It was almost comical really, the utter futility of the human’s actions, but still they persisted like no tomorrow.

 

Dr. W.D. Gaster watched calmly as the human tried for what had to be the fifteenth time to scale the wall, howling incessantly, even though it's voice sounded like it would give out. Nevertheless, he was intrigued by the human's behavior and its drive to continue tearing futilely at the walls. He steepled his fingers underneath his chin while he kept an eye socket on the monitors.

 

Surely the energy it possessed would run out at some point, and certainly it would have to give up. After all, the human's soul trait was not determination, from what little of it he had seen. Unfortunately, he had only witnessed a small glimmer of the soul, very briefly, on his camera monitors that showed him the Underground, but even that tiny glimpse had given him a drive to see this soul.

 

It was unlike any other soul he had seen before, so he knew not what to make of this sudden and new development. That was purely why he had taken an interest in this human once it had fallen, to know what was different about their soul, and his fascination about the possibilities was boundless.

 

It had only taken that one glimpse for him to recognize something unique about this human, and now he gazed on them as it was scrambling around frantically. Their soul hadn’t appeared, according to the Royal Guardsmen who had handed it over to him, even when they went to try and fight it. It was another reason to add to why this human was special. The human was capable of resisting their soul being seen, something that Gaster had never encountered with anyone except perhaps monsters.

 

Now, as he watched, the human began to tire, just as he had predicted, finally falling down onto the ground amidst the shredded fabric and began to weep bitterly, their body curling in on itself until it was as tight as could be managed. Gaster took this moment to really look at the human, or what he could see of them.

 

It appeared to be female and of a small stature, no taller than his chin really, as well as possessing very short, almost shaven in some places, choppy, brown hair that was mixed with dirt and mud. At least, it looked brown to him when he had first brought them into the lab. It was so muddied and dirty that he couldn't quite tell where the hair color started and the dirt ended.

 

Its clothing, or what little the human had, having entered the Underground nearly nude, was dirtier than their hair, ripped, torn, and bloodied with dried blood, an almost black color at this point. Its body was coated with scars, starting from just below their neck, down to just short of their wrists, and all the way down to their ankles. Scars from burns, cuts, scrapes, and more, filled more than 70% of its skin he estimated, almost in a bizzare tattoo form.

 

Bruises also patterned over the scars, and covered places that scars were not on, such as the human’s face and neck. They were odd colors as well, with the classic black and blue, but also greens and yellows. It was fascinating, but also something slightly disturbing to be a witness to. Humanity was an odd thing, nothing much had changed since the war that sent all monsters into the Underground in the first place.

 

He observed patiently as the human's breathing phased into quieter, less labored breaths, and he presumed it had fallen asleep in the time he had been looking at them. Time to move them to a different cell, he supposed. It couldn't stay in a torn and mangled room forever, and, judging by the looks of the room as it was, it would only make the current room worse.

 

The two of them had only been here for a few hours and yet- wait hours? Gaster took another look at the clock on his phone to see that it had been roughly three and three quarters of an hour since confining the human in this way. The human had persisted for so long in its endeavors to be free that it managed to expend all its energy in three hours.

 

_Interesting_.

 

Gaster carefully rose from his chair, stretching his bones in a way that attempted to make them relax a little more. He hadn't realized how stiff he was from sitting for almost four hours straight. With ease, he strolled to the elevator, pressing the button to go down to the correct level, then stepped out into the hall, down to where the human was currently. Once he reached the containment unit, Gaster carefully opened the door with his hand, the scanner blazing light through the hole in his palm. The door slid open silently and smoothly, just as he designed, revealing the room the human was in.

 

It somehow looked worse in reality than it had on the cameras. Not only was the fabric torn and pulled away from the walls, but there were bloodstains and dirt caking nearly half of everything. The blood was fresh too, that was worrisome. The human hadn't been injured when he had brought them here; had it been self inflicted injury? Perhaps a reopening of the freshest wounds it had on its body?

 

It would be a subject to study later on, but for now he had to get the human out of this room and into a less... destructible environment. Hopefully there would be less frenzy and chaos when it realized that their new environment would not yield as easily to their escape attempts as the first one had. Alas, hindsight was twenty-twenty, and he would have to make sure that he kept it in mind should there be another experiment like this one.

 

Gaster summoned his magic, sending a small armada of hands to lift the human to the next room, noting that though he still had to put minimal effort into the magic used in carrying them, it was still a good portion heavier than any skeleton's body would be. It made sense, as humans carried around all of their organs and parts physically with little to no magic to help them cart around their bodies.

 

Skeletons, and most other monsters facing a similar body type to the skeletons, would be much lighter anyways, simply because they lacked what the humans had in a physical form, but he already knew that. It was still nothing to him for his magic to carry, and caused him no strain at all, but perhaps he would write that down in his notes somewhere if he remembered later. He knew that there would need to be a session later in which he studied the human’s body to appropriately document the anatomy and figure out how they worked.

 

After a few minutes of checking down the hall for an appropriate place, Gaster had reached a more suitable room, this one lined with metal panelling on the walls and only a few destructible items, such as a small bathroom area and a bed, he laid the human carefully on the floor. This room had an electro-magic barrier as a door, which could be more convenient as humans could not physically make it past this door or damage it, but this kind of door provided its own quirks.

 

The human, if it was as stupid as he thought it was, would try to flee and become injured in the process, thus hindering his studies. Such was the nature of the door, that it would repel anything that was not meant to come through it. Humans were a prime example of this, and he knew that the electro-magic would provide quite a shock if touched.

 

It would prove to be difficult to keep the human contained, as he wanted to make sure this one survived long enough to experiment on. But with the door also came the possibility of a failure of the magic, though that was hardly a thing to be concerned about with his design. For now, however, he could safely observe the human from this room, and the testing rooms were not too far.

 

He had to satiate the itching in his skull, to know what made this human and their soul so different from all the others. It was almost as if the soul called to him, with him only seeing a small glimmer of it before he had been able to rush out and try to capture it. He had to know why. Time would be available to him, and he could solve all of his problems, including that pesky itch for knowledge, with the appropriate amount of time and patience.

 

The buzzing of his phone interrupted his thoughts, and he fished it out of his pockets impatiently, grumbling at the disturbance with distaste. Most of his associates knew that if he was working, he was not to be interrupted for any reason other than absolute emergencies, and even then they had to find a better reason. His work was delicate on a good day, and volatile on a bad one, and this was not one of the good days.

 

Surely one of them wouldn't be calling him at this hour anyways, most of the lab assistants had gone home for the night, and he also had requested that he be undisturbed specifically for the reason that the human was finally here. However, the name on the phone screen made whatever irritation he had mustered from the interruption falter and fade out.

 

Papyrus.

 

Gaster had almost forgotten his two sons would be waiting for him at home, eager to hear the news of the day, especially since he had rushed out rather hastily to see where the captured human was being kept and given no further explanation. The two were fascinated by humans, despite never having seen one in the flesh, and both had hoped to eventually see a human in person, perhaps at Gaster's workplace, some time soon.

 

Gaster knew that he could never let them see any ordinary human at his work, they were too quickly torn to bits for their souls to become a part of King Asgore's collection to break the barrier. But with this new soul, this new human, he might have the chance to grant his sons' wishes. The thought almost made him smile, to potentially have one of his sons come and follow him into his research. They were both smart enough for it, certainly.

 

Gaster hurriedly answered the phone before it stopped ringing, bringing the device to the side of his skull as he reactivated the electro-magic door and turned away from the human. Papyrus' voice came through clearly, despite the fact that he was in the lab and should have been out of cellular reach.

 

" _Dad_? Where are you? Dinner was supposed to be two hours ago and you still haven't come back, Sans and I are worried and-" There was a slight pause on the end, and he could hear Sans' voice, though muffled and unclear to Gaster, saying something to Papyrus briefly. His younger son huffed at the quip from Sans, then turned back to the conversation at hand.

 

"Well, _I_ was worried!! Anyways, are you going to come back yet? I want to make sure you eat something and I want to hear all about why you had to leave so suddenly because of a human being captured!"

 

Gaster couldn't help but chuckle a little at his younger son's words, the thought of returning home sending a soft swell of happiness through his soul. Papyrus was the more excitable and energetic of the two sons, and despite being a bit tall for a skeleton, quite a bit taller than Gaster himself actually, he still acted very much as though he were still in his babybone years. He sighed softly and ran his bony fingers over his eye sockets carefully, tracing the cracks as though they were still as fresh and delicate as the day he received them.

 

"I am sorry to have worried you Papyrus, I will be home soon," he said smoothly, hoping to ease his son's worried mind. "I should be home within the hour, and I will tell you what I can about the human, but there are no promises, understood? I am very tired and ready to eat, then sleep, so you might not hear much from me tonight." There was a slight hesitation on the other end of the phone, then a sigh.

 

"Okay dad, just get here safely okay? I don't want you to have any trouble getting home this time." Gaster hesitated at those words, his fingers stopping over the crack under his left eye. He remembered that these two cracks had occurred just as he was leaving to go home one night after work, which had scared both Papyrus and Sans when he walked in the door.

 

It was no wonder then that Papyrus would be worried that his father returning home late could pose another issue like the one before. A small smile tugged at the corners of Gaster's mouth, knowing his son cared. He let out a small sigh, straightening his spine just a touch more than it had been before he answered.

 

"I promise I won't, Papyrus. I'll see you soon."

 

Gaster hung up the phone with a sharp click, and slid the device back into his pocket, rubbing the side of his skull with his free hand as his eyes gazed at the human before him. If everything he had hoped would happen as smoothly as he planned, then he should be able to complete all his usual work, experiment on the human, and still have time to see his sons at the end of each day. Not to mention he still had a few days off that he hadn't used yet, though he doubted that he would want to stay too far away from the human now that he had them.

 

The human had eluded capture for almost two and a half days, almost as long as the last one had before them, and once he had heard that the human had been caught, he quickly interceded with the members of the Royal Guard just to make sure that it would be put into his care instead of being brought to the captain.

 

All the effort would be worth it, so he hoped. With a final glance back at the human, still curled up tightly on the floor, he turned his back on it and marched out of his lab, ready to head home and see his sons, though a part of his mind still lingered on that tiny dirty creature in the cold metal cell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, Chapter 1!! We will see how many of these chapters actually get names, because I never really named them while I was working, so I don't know if they will continue to have names. I have the majority of the story in writing already, and I hope to have most of it finished before too long. Enjoy!


	2. Filling Them In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaster makes it home after getting the human settled in the lab.

Papyrus bounced impatiently by the door, his energy practically rolling off of him in waves as he waited for his father to come home and tell him all about the sudden turn of events that led to his rushing out of the house without warning. He was certain that his father would be coming home very soon with news about the human he just brought to his lab and Papyrus couldn’t wait to hear all about it. It was too much for him to just stand by and wait for his father to return, hence the bouncing at the door.

 

It was no wonder he was so excited, as he did want to join the Royal Guard someday, and he wanted to capture humans himself to take to the king. His lifelong dream could finally be fulfilled once he heard every detail about their capture and the sort of thing it took to bring them in. This could be an excellent thing to learn from, and the waiting for any sort of news was driving him to the brink of exploding.

 

Sans chuckled from his spot on the couch, and watched his younger brother stand guard by the door, amused at how he was reacting to the news of there simply being a human in the Underground again. There was no doubt that he's want to hear all about it immediately after Gaster got home. Something about this human was different, that was for sure, if it could get their father excited enough to start running around like he just had a few hours ago.

 

"Sans, do you think that we will be able to see the human this time?” Papyrus asked suddenly, turning his head slightly to the side to address his sibling. “ I really want to see a human for myself and we haven't ever seen one! Dad says it's too dangerous most times, but do you think this one may have a different outcome? He did say that it was different than other humans, so do you think we have a chance to see this human?"

 

Sans considered his brother's words a moment. Sure, there had been other humans that had come through the Underground before, plenty of them, in his own opinion. This had to be at least number six, or maybe it was lucky number seven. He stopped trying to count awhile ago, though he knew that they were all so tantalizingly close to freedom. All the other human souls had arrived here in the Underground, been captured, and brought to the king for storage purposes until they had all seven needed.

 

There was something in this human, however, that had made Gaster so eager to find it, something that he relished in chasing down this one particular human, and not for the usual purpose. Papyrus was intentionally left in the dark about why he could never see a human, Gaster knew better than to shatter the young skeleton's hopes and dreams so early on. But Sans... Sans was a different story.

 

He was wittier than his brother, to be certain, having an aptitude for logical thinking and for dry humor, as Gaster had always pointed out to him. Papyrus was more imaginative and creative, seeking the worlds of fantasy in his mind that could bend to fit all rules he wished rather than the rules of reality. His little brother’s mind sought out the best in everything and everyone, and humans were included in that regard.

 

Their father had played along with Papyrus' whimsical notions, especially in their younger years, but now was struggling to find a way to break the reality of his work to his youngest. Humans weren't friendly, or nice, or anything that Papyrus had really hoped them to be, and were nothing more to the monsters of the Underground than a stepping stone used to get out. This was a problematic subject to tackle for someone who believed the best in everyone, like Papyrus.

 

Sans had known all of this for some time, though he discovered it quite by accident, stumbling upon a series of documents recording how the human souls were contained. The information was a bit jarring, and he had taken the matter up with Gaster a few days later while Papyrus was out shopping. His father had told him to keep that under wraps until he found a good way to tell Papyrus, but had made no moves to actually do anything since then. Sans let out a sigh, lifting his chin off the back of the couch to address his brother's question.

 

"I dunno bro, it would seem that this human is special for whatever reason, so maybe we can see it, but it might be special in a way that we can't do that,” he responded with a lazy shrug. “Dad would tell us if we can visit this one, but we don't know until he gets back from the lab. We'll just have to wait until then."

 

Papyrus seemed disappointed with this turn of events, shoulders slumping ever so slightly, but accepted the answer with a half-hearted hum, his gaze never really leaving the front door. He began to bounce impatiently again, his never-ending well of energy resurfacing. The older skeleton watched him a second longer, entertained by his younger brother's actions, then returned quietly to his own thoughts as he faced forwards on the couch again.

 

If this human was the key to leaving the Underground, why would Gaster want to keep them from that fate, to do experiments on them in the lab? There was absolutely no reason to keep all of the monsters trapped here just for the sake of experimentation, if the monsters could be free, they should be. They didn't deserve to have their lives spent cooped up in one place where there was no real sunlight, no real seasons, no real anything.

 

He knew all about how the humans locked them under the mountain after a war that slaughtered several hundreds of monsters without mercy. It was the same story that every monster heard from the time they were little, up until they were telling it themselves. Humans were scum, and nothing he had seen with any of the human souls had really changed his mind.

 

His father had shown him one or two of them when he had a chance, and though they glowed brightly with their soul traits and corresponding colors, there had been a sort of film over them, making them seem grimy. Some were darker than others, and he had come to call this filmy substance " _sin_ " to give himself some sort of power, or at least the sense of power, over them.

 

All monster souls that he had seen were bright and pure, no film over them, no sins. To be honest though, he hadn't seen too many of those either, as monsters were reluctant to just take out their souls, their fragile culminations of themselves, and parade them around to just anyone. Humans were more than happy to wear their hearts on their sleeves, and Sans was glad he wasn’t able to do that.

 

The door suddenly swung open, and Gaster stepped in, only to be tackled right back out into a snow drift by his younger son's energetic form. Laughter rung through the nearly empty streets of Snowdin as the two skeletons picked themselves out of the snow and shook the white powder from their clothing. Sans twisted around on the couch, bringing his knees up onto the faded cushion to face backwards on it and look out the door as Gaster came inside, a powdery white Papyrus still clinging to his shoulders with a beaming smile.

 

Though Sans and Papyrus were 22 and 20 respectively, Papyrus still got a childlike glee out of seeing their father return home at the end of every night. Even on nights when he got home too late, Papyrus would be waiting on the couch, snoring quietly as he tried to stay up to make sure the boys' father had some form of welcome when he got home. Sans felt his usual grin stretch a little wider as he watched his father swing the younger skeleton around for a moment, then insist on him letting go so that neither would be caused harm.

 

Sans hopped down off the couch and strolled over to Gaster, allowing time for their father to breathe appropriately after being hugged tightly by a skeleton who was bigger than he was. It was only because of magic and the natural lightweight bodies of skeletons that he was even able to walk into the house with Papyrus around his neck anyways.

 

Gaster smiled down at his shorter, yet elder, son and gave him a hug as well, the tallest skeleton's good mood being somewhat contagious. Sans gave his father a pat on the back and shuffled over to the kitchen, adjusting his comfy hoodie around his ribcage as he went, and listening to Papyrus bombard the scientist with a million questions, as per usual.

 

"Hello dad!! I have some spaghetti waiting for you in the microwave! How was work? Did you see the guards catch that human? What was it like? Did you see their soul? Can we visit it at the lab? Are we going to be the ones that help you with your research on the human like you've always wanted? When are you going to let us see the human? Can we go right now? Can we see them in the morning? DId it put up a fight against the Royal Guardsmen?"

 

Gaster's patience with the never-ending barrage of near repetitive questions was always amazing to Sans, and had naturally come in handy right after the discovery of a human. Meanwhile, the scientist sat down at the table after pulling his plate of spaghetti out of the microwave, still steaming, and began to tuck into his meal with a word of thanks to Papyrus about the food. Sans sat across from him, a hand cupping his chin while his elbow rested on the table, watching his father as the youngest skeleton continued to pepper their father with questions.

 

Soon, their father had finished eating, and his eye sockets were beginning to slip closed, despite Papyrus' loud voice and persistent questioning. Sans nudged his brother quietly, alerting him of the sleepiness of their father, and then moved to help his father up to bed. Gaster jumped when Sans' hand made contact with his shoulder, and whirled around quickly. Sans backed off a little, hands up in a display of peace, and then took a step back towards his father.

 

"Hey, it's getting kinda late, and I figured you might want to go get some shut eye before tomorrow, because you're working again, right?" he asked, shrugging the pointed look Papyrus was giving him off. "I'm sure we can wait for the answers to our questions until the morning, or maybe even later than that." The statement was pointed, and Sans shot his brother a meaningful glance as he spoke the words, to which Papyrus glared back, clearly not wanting to wait that long. "There's no need to stay up and chat when you're this tired, so let's get you-"

 

"No, it's quite alright, Sans," Gaster interrupted softly, holding up a holed hand to quiet his eldest son. "It's quite alright, I actually was meaning to tell you both about the new human, but I suppose that I was getting a little carried away by my own drowsiness. Your brother's voice is rather soothing after all, and I must have let my concentration lapse."

 

Soothing wasn't exactly how Sans would have described Papyrus' voice, nor would most of the monsters who knew him, but he supposed that would be a topic for another day. Papyrus sat down eagerly next to his father, eye sockets shining brightly with anticipation for what was to come out of his father's mouth next. Gaster chuckled, patted his son's head affectionately, and folded his hands together neatly on the table in front of him.

 

After a few moments of silence and trying to figure out the right way to start this inevitable conversation, a sigh escaped him and he leaned back in his chair a little. The mood instantly shifted into something more serious, and Sans felt himself start to sweat a little at the sudden change.

 

"How much do you two know about the nature of human souls?"

 

The question wasn't what the two boys were expecting, but it was something that they both knew about in a fair amount of detail, as they both were familiar with some of their father's work. The two shared a glance between each other, then looked back at Gaster with slightly troubled expressions. If the conversation continued on this line, it could get very interesting, very quickly.

 

"They're... They're the culmination of a human's essence, with a singular trait that tends to shine through all others leaving them with one color in particular, right?" Papyrus offered uncertainly. Gaster nodded and sat back up in his chair, adjusting his glasses carefully on the bone above his nasal cavity.

 

"That's correct, Papyrus. Unlinke monsters, who only have one color of soul, white, and do not possess a core soul trait, human souls often carry a singular dominant trait, one of a set of seven possible soul traits, and that trait is what makes humans who they are. Quite simple in its most basic of principles, but it can get quite complex, rather quickly. Do you remember what the seven core traits are?"

 

"Bravery, justice, kindness, patience, integrity, perseverance, and determination," Sans said, almost automatically. Again, Gaster nodded, unfolding his hands to summon his magic hands, which brought him some papers from his office downstairs to the table before they dispersed. He shuffled through the papers quietly, and laid out seven corresponding sheets of paper, filled with notes on each of the soul traits, turning them so the brothers could read them.

 

Most of it was stuff they already knew, but there was a few things about the actual humans that had exhibited those traits and had fallen into the Underground. Sans was worried about Papyrus seeing something that might rattle him, but the younger brother was absorbed into the material, his eye sockets scanning the papers one after the other with a strangely calm look.

 

Sans turned to the papers himself, skipping over the stuff he already knew and taking in the new information carefully. He hadn't seen this much detail on the souls before, each sheet of paper listing the factors that were derived directly from the core soul trait. Some of the information was confusing, and seemed almost roundabout in nature, leading only to looping questions, and other information was incomplete, with questions scribbled in Gaster's handwriting in the margins.

 

"This is all the information that I have collected on all the human souls that have come through the Underground. Each one was carefully studied and examined, even though I no longer have access to them directly. You already know most of the information there, however...." Gaster paused a moment, leaning forward onto his elbows on the table. Sans and Papyrus looked at each other again, confused and worried. What could possibly be so important about souls that could work their father into such a frenzy over one single human?

 

"This new human who has just fallen, _their soul does not possess any of the core seven traits_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 completed! Next chapter is going to begin to cover more of the human in the lab.


	3. Conflict From Within

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaster returns to the labs to monitor the human.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter has mentions of blood and mild violence. Please be advised that if you are unable/unwilling to read this sort of content that it is present in the beginning of the chapter. If you need to skip, read up until the lines "His footsteps pattered down the stairs" and it will be safe to resume with "Gaster sighed and had his magic set the human down"

Gaster rubbed his skull underneath his eye sockets tiredly, trying to muster the energy to maintain his projects while working on the human in secrecy and solitude. The task was much more daunting than one may initially think, especially given that this was supposed to be a secret to everyone except his family. It was only three nights ago that he told his sons the news, and surprisingly the two were mostly mute when it came to questioning their father about what he meant with the different soul color. 

 

The moments right after was filled with shocked silence, with them both staring at Gaster as though he had just suggested that cheese was the way to free the Underground. Sure, they had asked a few questions after collecting themselves, but then both ushered him off to bed, telling him that he needed his rest just as any other monster would, and that he wasn't immune to the effects of sleep deprivation.

 

He chuckled to himself, knowing he should have been able to put the same sort of idea into Sans' head, but was utterly unable to do so, as the younger skeleton simply would say "okay" and then go and do whatever he wanted to. Papyrus was infuriated by this mannerism of his brother's to no end, and it only served to add fuel to both of their arguments, though mostly on Papyrus' end of things. 

 

Gaster hoped that at some point he would be able to treat the two boys to something nice, perhaps when the human was stable enough, he could bring the two of them in to observe from afar. Then, they could individually see the human, as more than one or two at a time could be frightening to the already terrified creature. It would be something to enliven their day, for certain, and break the monotony of the usual routine.

 

As he sat down at his desk and booted up the small monitoring system, he took a sip of his coffee, made for him this morning with care by Papyrus. Sans had gifted him the mug it was in, with the label "#1 Skele-dad" on the side, which still made him chuckle every now and then. The nickname had stuck ever since Sans was a babybones, just old enough to form basic sentence structures and make sense of the world around him, though neither brother really used it now. 

 

Now was not the time for him to be lingering on such sentimentalities, however, as he had a human to watch and learn from. There was simply too much to do in order for him to get every single bit of information from this oddity he had housed beneath him. Gaster swung his chair around to face the monitor again, and-

 

With haste, he set the mug onto the desk and practically flew out of his chair, nearly choking on his coffee as he raced to the room where the human was kept under his office. He hadn't expected this, not at all, how on earth did it even manage to do something like...? Not now, he would have to ponder the matter much later, first he had to deal with this problem that had just arisen from the human. 

 

His footsteps pattered down the stairs quickly, believing them to be much faster than the elevator, and he skidded down the hall to the room with the human. Once he made it there, he hurriedly unlocked the barrier, and stepped inside, his breaths coming in short pants. He took a quick survey of the damage done, and to his surprise, it was worse than it had appeared on the monitor.

 

The human had somehow managed to peel some of the metal paneling away from the wall, which he thought had been securely bolted down. A few of the bolts had piled on the floor, and the steel plate, which was no thicker than a quarter inch, was bent away from the wall at an odd angle. More alarming than the feat of strength the human had shown, however, was the fact that the human was bleeding, quite profusely, all over the floor and onto themselves.

 

It appeared that their hands and arms had been cut open by the sharp edges of the steel panel, and now dark crimson blood was gushing all over the floor, staining the human's arms, feet, legs, and the metallic floor covering. The bitter tang of iron permeated the air heavily and it almost made him gag to be able to taste the scent which lay thickly in the small cell. The human was crying bitterly most likely from the pain, but was still attempting to pry the panel off the wall, though their hands kept slipping off of the now soaked material, earning them more cuts that appeared deep and painful. 

 

It was utterly persistent despite the injuries and the obstacles, and for a moment, Gaster was frozen in place, uncertain if what he was seeing was actually reality. A human sacrificing their health, and quite possibly their sanity, in order to simply try and escape their current situation, as futile as it was, was completely intriguing to him. It didn't seem to care about the injuries it was gaining, or that it was getting worse with each attempt, only that it got out as soon as possible. 

 

_ Fascinating. _

 

Gaster summoned his magic, pulling the human away with a bit more force than necessary, and slammed them into the opposite wall. The human cried out, then went limp in the grasp of his magic, potentially unconscious. The skeleton sighed, then set to mending the wall, using more of his magic once again while still holding the human in place, just to be sure that the panels wouldn't be going anywhere. 

 

It took more time than he would have liked, but Gaster reinforced the walls with some magic to hopefully keep the human from trying to pull the same stunt again at a later time. Then, with that set firmly into place, he turned his attention to the human, still crumpled in a heap on the floor.

 

Their blood loss was substantial, leaving large pools of the dark liquid all over the floor that he would have to clean later. The human’s already pale skin was ashen now, and if it was a monster, he would dare say it was close to dusting at this point just from the damage. It let out a whine, informing Gaster that the human was not unconscious, like he had assumed, but rather still awake and dealing with the pain inflicted upon themselves. He let out a sigh and shook his head.

 

"Well now," he tutted, using his magic to bring them closer to him. "If you didn't want to be hurt, you shouldn't have tried to pull the paneling off of the walls. It's your own fault for trying to manage your escape in such a way that could cause injury to yourself. In fact, you shouldn't have tried to escape at all, I'm only going to find you immediately afterwards."

 

The human made no response, and refused to even look at him, instead casting their dull eyes to the ground in their own misery as blood continued to drip from their arms. Gaster contemplated how he would heal them, and use a second type of magic, while not letting them go at the same time. If he let them down to focus fully on healing, it could try to run through the door, which could only be activated or deactivated from the outside. 

 

On the other hand, if he used both types of magic at once, he risked one of them failing entirely as he worked on healing, and there was no telling which one would fail. To have the human not heal properly could leave all kinds of nasty scarring, and potential problems later on, but he had to take a risk somewhere. Problematic at best, and something dangerous at worst, he supposed.

 

Gaster sighed and had his magic set the human down before dispersing it entirely, then hovered over them, standing between them and the door so that it couldn't escape easily. He had to take every precaution to make sure there would be no chances of it running off on him and exposing itself back to the rest of the Underground. Once again, the human made no efforts to look at him, which posed a new idea into his mind about their behavior. A secondary behavioral trait that had been ingrained into the human while still on the surface - submission. 

 

_ Fascinating, that this sort of idea could be planted into the human at an age that seemed to be fairly young for their kind. If I had to place the age comparatively, I would say it were not much younger than Papyrus, though the human is certainly a good deal smaller than he is now. But I will have to record that later, I must focus on healing these injuries at the present moment. _

 

The scientist pulled the human's bloodied hands up from their sides, allowing the green magic of healing to coat his holed palms as he did so. The human seemed to protest this action, but only briefly, pulling at his grip for a few seconds before it dropped back into its submissive state. Perhaps it realized he was trying to help them, or perhaps there was another reason, but he was too focused on healing the wounds to really give the thought any proper consideration.

 

While he was in this position with the human, Gaster took a moment to scan their body for any traces of other injury it may have caused itself, as well as taking a look at all the other scars and such that patterned its skin. It appeared that there were areas in which the different types of scars seemed to have taken place, such as burns coating the tops of the forearms and slashes on the underside. He took a moment to wonder why there were so many, and what could have caused this kind of scarring.

 

Trailing over their body further, he noted several larger slashes on the stomach, as well as some perfectly circular cuts made of jagged lines around the collarbone and ribcage, a broken bottle of some sort being the most likely culprit. The human was also oddly colored, with bruising placed in random spots all over the scars, ribcage, neck, legs, and wrists, in colors like black, green, blue, purple, and yellow. Someone had not been treating this human appropriately on the Surface, only proving that humanity had remained the same since the war.

 

The human stirred slightly as he pulled his hands away from its body, leaving only faint white lines along their hands and arms where the wounds used to be. It looked up at him, dulled green eyes peering out from the poorly cut ends of dirty hair that lay plastered to its forehead. How peculiar, the eyes were so dull and lifeless, and yet so full of something he couldn't place. Perhaps the human would prove to be more useful than he initially took it for.

 

Gaster turned away from the human, only to have its hand catch his sleeve, tugging on it hesitantly. He faced it once more, and though the human opened its mouth, no coherent sounds came out of it, only meaningless mumbles. Yet the eyes told him everything he needed to know about what the human wanted to say. "Thank you."

 

Gaster would be lying if he said he didn't feel an odd pull from this human, the same pull he had felt before when he first saw it on his monitors for the Underground. The feeling was bothersome, distracting him from what he knew he needed to do for his research, and at the same time it was oddly familiar. It wasn't something he was used to, per se, but he suddenly knew the name of the feeling he got when he looked at this human, dirty and bloody, sitting feebly in a cold metal cell with nothing but the thin gown he had given it a day after their arrival. 

 

_ Pity _ . 

 

He pitied a human. A human who had fallen into the Underground. Something that had been given to him to study and research for the possibility of freedom from this prison that he and all monsters were forced to live in. He pitied the same kind of creature that had so easily slaughtered thousands of monsters without a single thought, and locked them in this place to begin with. The human had turned to look at him with one glance and he had instantly fallen into a lure of emotion like it was a friend.

 

Disgusted with himself, the skeleton pulled his sleeve out of the human's grasp and left the room, sending in some magic to clean the blood off of the floors and walls. Once he reactivated the door and his magic had done its work, he turned to leave, fully prepared to write down an account of the human's troublesome behaviors. He had to shut down his emotion towards this human, it was a  _ subject _ , not a person, not someone to be cared about or pitied or loved. 

 

It were a human, after all, and there was no way he was ever going to find any positive emotions for a human, regardless of whether or not it had a troubled past. He would find a way to make sure he was cold to it, never to find a single thing to connect each other together, because once he started caring, he wouldn't be able to stop. That would be a disaster, one easily prevented and he would do everything to stay detached.

 

Gaster returned to his workstation and began to write down the events of the day, taking measures to watch the human on the monitor every now and then. Oddly enough, the human hadn't moved from the spot that he had set them down at initially, or even done anything. For a few minutes, Gaster wondered if perhaps the screen or the camera were broken, but dismissed the idea when the human suddenly shivered and shifted on the screen. Good.

 

His hands came up to the sides of his skull again and he rubbed his temples in a circular motion. If the human continued to be difficult, he would have to keep Papyrus and Sans away from them as to not risk any sort of damage to them or to his sons. It would definitely be difficult, as Papyrus would be more and more antsy to see them every single passing day, but he would have to do his best. This human was different, and he had to figure out why that was. For now, however, he could write some journal entries....

 

**Entry [REDACTED]** : The human shows signs of past trauma, and refuses to be touched in any sort of manner. I have resorted to using magic to getting them anywhere in the lab to do any sort of testing on it, as it becomes uncooperative to physical touches. It swings between trying to hide from me, to being submissive in nature. No progress has been made so far.

 

**Entry [REDACTED]** : The human continues to make futile attempts at escaping the cell it’s in. I have yet to figure out why it has been so bent on being able to leave this place, as there is nothing but suffering awaiting them outside. It hasn't understood the gravity of their blessing to be kept alive here in the labs. Observation is needed for further understanding of the behaviors displayed.

 

**Entry [REDACTED]** : I was unable to get the human to show me their soul once again, leading me to believe that this human is somehow in control of whether their soul shows or not, unlike most. Peculiar. I will have to move to more drastic measures following in order to maintain a good hold on my studies and find out what makes their soul so different. My theories so far are still unproven.

 

**Entry [REDACTED]** : Unable to receive any sort of soul reaction out of the human with any of the tests performed on it. Have tried light electroshocks and needles today, no results. May need to expand into other areas of testing without damaging the soul.

 

**Entry [REDACTED]** : The human has refused to make any kind of contact with me, intellectually speaking, though it is certainly developed enough that it should be more than capable of doing so. Our languages are different, but at this point I fear it is mute or mentally inhibited from creating coherent speech. I have only heard it scream and make infantile noises so far. Physically speaking, the human is not malformed apart from the numerous scars it has on its body, but I cannot dissect their mind, much as I would like to, to figure out how it works and to test my hypothesis. It better not be damaged from the Surface prior to falling, or I will have another bone to pick with humanity.

 

**Entry [REDACTED]** : The human wanes in curiosity, choosing to not observe anything around it. The monotony of testing appears to have drained it of whatever determination it naturally possesses. Interesting. Maybe there can be some sort of external stimulus that can be manufactured to get their determination levels back up, or to get them to at least participate in the testing again.

 

**Entry [REDACTED]** : No luck in producing the human's soul from their body, even when using blue magic or any type of battle magic. Strange, as the vast majority of humans would have their soul showing in a battle. It appears to be the only one capable of keeping their soul secretive, yet I know that their soul is different. If only I could get it to show it to me.

 

**Entry [REDACTED]** : The human has started to eat less, refusing food I offer it, and the strain on its body is showing. At first I assumed it may have been ill, but now it appears to be as some sort of act of contrition or personal atonement. It will not participate in tests with energy, and spends much of its time lazing about on the floor or sleeping. It almost reminds me of one of my son's behaviors. Speaking of my sons, I will have them arriving to see the human in just three weeks, and I hope that the human will be in better spirits by that time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who missed out, the gist of what happened is that the human managed to pry the metal paneling off the wall and cut themselves open on the sharp edges multiple times. Gaster forces them away with his magic, rougher than necessary, fixes the wall up with more magic, and proceeds to chastise them about their actions before deciding whether or not to heal them. 
> 
> Next chapter contains something to advance plot!


	4. Meeting The Human

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Papyrus finally get a chance to see the human they've heard so much about.

Papyrus wasn't sure what had taken his father so long to get him and Sans to actually see the human. It had been almost an entire year since it had first fallen, and they had heard very little about the human unless Papyrus had pried the information out of his father. The most they had actually heard from their father was that the human was extremely volatile and could potentially be a threat to them both should something go horribly wrong.

 

Now that the brothers were actually headed to the lab, Papyrus could hardly keep his energy contained within his body, bouncing in almost every step he took. Both Sans and his father found this quite amusing as the three of them made their way through the lab and all the way down into the section that Gaster had practically quarantined off for himself.

 

The elevator ride was filled with anticipation, and there was so much more that Papyrus wanted to say and do, but was incapable of expressing just because of how excited he was. Sans was leaning up against the wall, hands in his pockets and a lazy, and somewhat tense grin on his face. Gaster finally broke the silence over all of them with a sigh, then looked between his two sons.

 

"Now I want you two to realize something about this human," he started, almost unsure of his words. "It is... still rather unstable, to say the least, and may react in ways that we can't anticipate should anyone but me approach them. It hasn't taken too well to all of the tests, and as a result are very untrusting of my presence. I don't know how the human would react to you both at once. For today, we will look at them on the monitor and that should suffice for now, no interaction with them until it has stabilized in mood, considerably."

 

Sans shrugged his agreement, and Papyrus had to bite down on his million questions that were already springing up within him before his father took the chance to see the human  away. There was no way that he would let this chance slide, but... something didn't quite feel right about the way the eldest skeleton had said the human was volatile today.

 

Gaster had spoken of improvement in the responsiveness the human had been showing, but they were slipping back into old habits? Normally Papyrus wouldn't have cared so much about the wording, but this time, it felt almost wrong for him to believe that at face value. Something wasn’t sitting right in that statement, and he wasn’t sure what it was that was bothering him.

 

The elevator doors slipped open and the three skeletons stepped out, walking quickly down the hall toward the office space that had been set up for Gaster. Papyrus followed eagerly behind his father, but something tugged on his soul, as if telling him to wait or to go on a different way. He hesitated to try and pinpoint the sensation, falling slightly behind the group which didn't go unnoticed by his brother.

 

"Something got your bones all _rattled_ , Paps?" Sans asked, his voice jovial with the pun he had tossed in. “Or did something happen for you _tibia_ like this? You don’t happen to already have a _bone_ to pick with the human, do you?

 

Ordinarily, Papyrus would have groaned at the terrible jokes, but whatever was tugging at his soul grew more urgent and pulled his attention away from his brother's words. Sans' smile fell a little into concern, and he stepped in front of Papyrus to look at him more carefully. Papyrus' expression was twisted into a mix of confusion and focus, gazing at the floor where there seemed to be nothing underneath, but he stared as though it held the answers to his unspoken questions.

 

"Bro? Is everything okay? You look kinda... put off by something," Sans spoke again, genuine concern in his tone. At this point, Gaster had noticed the two boys weren't following and had paused by a door to wait for the two of them. Papyrus lifted his head to look at his brother, trying to brush off the feeling and continue on, though the pulling lingered.

 

"Hm? Oh yes, I, the Great Papyrus, am feeling perfectly fine!” he responded, sending what he hoped was one of his normal smiles to his brother. “I was just thinking about something, but it doesn't matter now, shall we continue on?" He spoke almost too quickly, and stepped past Sans to make his way over to Gaster.

 

Sans' worry only deepened; Papyrus was a terrible liar, and everything that had come out of Papyrus' mouth had seemed to be untruthful to the point where he wasn't sure if there was any truth. Regardless, he followed behind his taller sibling, stuffing his hands into the front pocket of his hoodie. He would get a chance to ask him later.

 

"Is everything alright?" their father questioned as the two approached. “I was expecting your boundless enthusiasm to carry over through the whole journey. Are you having second thoughts about meeting the human today? We can reschedule it for another time, perhaps, if you are not feeling up for it.”

 

Papyrus waved the concern off as though nothing really were wrong. Gaster shared a glance with Sans, the both of them knowing that something was not quite right with the youngest member of the skeletons. However, all of them continued into the office, and closed the door behind them with a soft click of the latch. Gaster sat down in his chair, stretching slowly, and then turned on a small monitor screen as he started shuffling his papers around the desk.

 

"Forgive the mess in here, boys,” he muttered as he swept some empty wrappers into a wastebasket. “I didn't get a chance to clean up before you two got here. The screen will be up momentarily with the human on the camera, and you'll be able to see them. Let me give you what information I have about the human itself, if I can find the appropriate papers...."

 

The screen flickered to life with an image of the metal lined cell, with the bed, small bathroom area, and a bundle of what looked to be clothes or blankets in a pile in the middle of the floor. No human was immediately obvious, but the bundle shuddered and shifted, revealing the human as it crawled out of the mass of fabric that had previously been covering it. Gaster started to explain some of the things about the human, but Papyrus wasn't listening, his eyes transfixed on the figure on the screen.

 

It looked... dirty, weak, and broken, though not necessarily in a physical sense. He could almost feel the agony of this human through the screen of the monitor, and his soul thumped in his chest, causing him to unconsciously raise a hand up to it. Even on the screen he could see the human's bones through their skin, their body looking far weaker than what he had been told about humans before.

 

Weren't humans supposed to be strong, fierce warriors with a bloodlust only satiated by monster deaths? Wasn’t that what all the stories about the war and about the Surface had been about? This one, this human, looked feeble, timid, and too quiet to do anything except drag itself across the floor. Papyrus felt his soul thump in his ribcage again, almost painfully, and he opened his mouth to ask a question before he had even though about it.

 

"Why does the human look so... _weak_?"

 

Both Gaster and Sans turned to look at him, but his gaze remained on the monitor screen a moment longer before he turned to face them, concern glimmering in his eye sockets. Sans was surprised at his brother's initial reaction. Sure, Papyrus was a bit of a bleeding heart when it came to the injured and those who were weak, but to immediately ask about the health condition of the human without any of the other questions he had been asking before even coming here? Gaster looked equally surprised at his son's inquiry, then took a look at the screen as well.

 

"The human, for the past several weeks, has been refusing most amounts of food and eating what is barely necessary to survive on, no matter what I bring to it,” he said with a sigh. “It has taken a serious toll on their body, as you can see, though it does not seem to be changing its mind any time soon." Papyrus' troubled expression only deepened at this, and he listened a little more carefully to what Gaster had to say about them, his gaze returning to the screen.

 

"As I was saying,” he said, clearing his proverbial throat, “this human's soul is entirely unique to them, from what I have seen, and there are so many possibilities I cannot yet explore because it is too weak at the moment to do any testing. I have also failed in getting any verbal language out of the human, and I fear it may be too dumb to speak, or perhaps has a physical deformity which prevents it from making any coherent language.” A short sigh came from Gaster, his shoulders drooping ever so slightly as he continued, obviously disappointed in the human’s potential issues.

 

“All my attempts at communication, whether written, verbal, or otherwise, have since failed,” he muttered, dejection clearly coloring his voice. “And now it refuses to make any sort of eye contact with me. I cannot understand it, but it will not allow itself to heal and return to its natural state of existence, like it had refused to give itself the healing it needs." Once more, Gaster set about to gathering his notes, speaking again about other topics, but the tallest skeleton was no longer really listening.

 

Papyrus felt that pulling in his soul again, urging him to go to the human and speak with it, to feed it, to do anything at all to make a connection with it. For a moment, he floundered, not sure if he should follow his soul or wait until his father brought them down. Another glance at the monitor solidified the decision for Papyrus and he didn’t want to fight the feeling anymore. He glanced around the room, spotting a small packet of food on Gaster's desk, and he snatched it up quickly before he hurried out the door of the office.

 

Sans' voice was calling after him, though Papyrus was moving too quickly out of earshot to know what he was saying. The young skeleton reentered the elevator and hesitated, uncertain of what floor the human would be on, and unsure of where it was. His soul thumped again, and his hand lifted itself and pressed a button for three floors down, as if he knew instinctively where the human was.

 

The elevator moved down swiftly, and Papyrus burst through the doors and down the hallway like his life depended on it, though he didn't know why it felt so urgent. His soul led him down the hallway and to an electro-magic door, where, upon peering in, he could see the human, still laying pitifully on the floor, unmoved from when he had seen them on the screen only moments ago. Breath that he didn’t need caught in his metaphorical throat, and for a moment his confidence wavered.

 

"Human...?" he called out uncertainly, not knowing if they would respond at all, or if he could be seen or heard on the cameras. Regardless, he waited by the door, hoping that he would get something to happen with his being present.

 

Almost immediately after he called to them, however, the human’s head lifted up and swiveled to look at him, dull green eyes casting a confused and curious look at him. It sat up slowly, the large blanket-like materials that had covered them falling away to give him a better look at their body than the screen ever had. They were dirty, bloodied, and scarred, broken and bruised. But even amidst that, his soul pounded against his ribcage at the sight of them, inexplicably drawn to them.

 

They were _beautiful_.

 

A real, living human sat in front of him, staring right back at him with their green eyes, and they were strangely beautiful. Papyrus couldn't help but continue to stare at the human as it moved, ever so slowly, inching closer to him and the door, their movements cautious, but fueled with curiosity. He took in all of the things he could about their appearance, from their uneven, dirtied hair that came no further than just past their chin, to their bony and frail looking arms, all the way to their fingers and toes.

 

The human appeared to be doing a similar sort of scanning over his own body, looking at the sweater he had chosen to wear that day to his boots, to his scarf, then to his face again. They started to inch closer to him, timidly, almost as if it was worried it didn’t have permission to approach. Something within him told him that he could help them, that he could do something about the way that they looked, and he stepped closer in front of the door.

 

The human immediately stopped moving, its eyes flickering with something that told him it was scared of this newcomer, even though it may have been curious to figure out why he was here. Papyrus felt his soul urging him forwards and he looked around before spotting the scanner, testing it carefully with his hand. Much to his surprise, the electro-magic forming the door disappeared, and he stepped inside the cell slowly, trying not to alarm the human. Despite his intentions, they backed away from him, their eyes never leaving his form, and his soul thumped again, telling him to get closer.

 

Behind him, he could hear rapidly approaching sets of footsteps, no doubt Sans and Gaster had seen him appear on the cameras or heard his voice through the monitor and were headed there now. He put up a hand behind him as the footsteps came up rather quickly, telling the two of them to stay put. The footsteps came to a halt by the door, though Papyrus kept his gaze on the human’s shaking form.

 

" _Papyrus_ !” Gaster hissed, his voice low and bordering on dangerous. “Get out of there at once, the human isn't stable enough for you to be in there with them! It isn’t safe for you to be in such close proximity, come back up to my office, _now_!"

 

"Paps, this isn't something you want to do right now, Dad told us to stay in the office for a reason, so let's go before something bad happens, okay?" Sans' voice was more coaxing than their father’s, but the same urgency was laid underneath his tone. Papyrus shook his head carefully, still watching the human, which had backed up against the far wall by this point, its breathing hitched and scared.

 

"No, I need to help them, they're… they’re hurt, and scared," he said softly, taking a few slow steps closer and continued closer, keeping his movements slow and easily trackable. The human’s gaze never once left his body, though he could tell they wanted nothing more than to run. Both Sans and Gaster started to speak at the same time, protesting his actions while also pleading with him to come back out of the cell.

 

"Papyrus, please! The human is capable of causing great harm if it so wished, and it will not be pleasant for either of you if something were to go wrong! Turn around and come out of there at once!"

 

"Pap, listen to us! You don't know what you're getting into, and Dad knows a lot more about the human than we do. Please, bro, come out of the cell, we can go upstairs and watch them from the monitor like we were supposed to, and everything will be okay. Let's go, Paps, please!"

 

Papyrus ignored them, getting close enough to be just out of reaching distance of the human. Despite the fear he could clearly see in its body language and hear the hitch in its breath, it was remarkably calm, and showed no attempts to fight him or run away. It was almost as if they were feeling the same pull towards him that he felt towards them, though he couldn't be certain.

 

He knelt down carefully in front of the human, stretching out his boney hand with the packet of food, a tear already present in the packaging for an easy open. He left his hand flat and low to the ground, treating the human like one might treat a frightened animal, just to gain their trust. The green eyes left his face for a moment, flicking between the outstretched food and his face, the uncertainty of whether he could be trusted as a strange newcomer.

 

Papyrus barely registered that he was holding his breath and that Gaster and Sans had both fallen silent behind him, watching these events with awe and wonder. The human stretched out a hand, quiveringly, uncertainly, and reached for the food he had in his palm. Their fingers inched closer, closer, and closer still, hesitating over his hand with a tremble running through the appendages, as if afraid he would take the food away or strike them.

 

Papyrus only waited, leaving himself as still as possible, just to reassure them that he wasn't a threat, and watched their hand slowly reach down to grab the food. This seemed to be a good choice, because the human continued to reach for the food, though they never relaxed. Their movements were just as slow as his had been earlier, and  finally, they went to grasp the small package.

 

The touch had been only momentary, merely a slight brush of the human's fingertips against the bones in his outstretched palm, but despite the feathery nature of the contact, it sent a jolt of hot electricity up the skeleton's arm. He pulled away quickly, the discomfort and unfamiliarity of the feeling disappearing as quickly as it had come. The human had seemed to feel it too, shrinking back against the wall, the food clutched in their hand as the other arm rose to touch the offended limb. Both sat frozen for a moment, simply staring at one another in awe of what had just happened, then the human sat up, inching closer again.

 

Before they could move much closer than the two already had been, several pairs of magic hands seized Papyrus by his shoulders, under his arms, and around his ribcage, pulling him away. He was too surprised to resist against the pulling hands of his father's magic, though his soul cried out to be in contact with the human again. It pounded in his ribcage, as if it would fly right out and over to the human, who looked rather scared to suddenly be left alone in its cell.

 

Just as quickly as the hands had appeared, Gaster had pulled Papyrus out of the cell, set him to sit on the floor, turned the door back on, and waved the magic into nothingness again. The youngest skeleton couldn't even bring himself to look away from the human, that was still staring at him now through the blue electro-magic of the door. As he watched, the human looked at the food, then at him again, their eyes pleading with him, as if to ask him to come back in, or to perhaps take them out there with him.

 

"Are you _insane_ , bro?" Sans asked, his voice breaking through the stupor that Papyrus found himself in. His older brother was hovering over him, concern glinting in his eye sockets. Papyrus opened his mouth to speak, and found nothing to say in response, his hand coming up to rest over where his soul was again. The thumping was returning, almost to painful levels again and getting stronger, and for all his knowledge, he had no idea what was going on with him.

 

Sans let out a small huff and turned away from his brother, upset by the lack of response he had received. He paused, however, upon looking back into the room where the human still sat, watching the three of them. His own worries dropped into a blank stare and for a moment, he couldn’t think of anything else to do or say.

 

"Papyrus, that was extremely foolish of you to do!" Gaster chided, his eye sockets holding a much angrier look than his eldest son's had. "I warned you that the human was extremely volatile and what do you do? You rush down to it and nearly get yourself injured!"

 

"Dad...." Sans' voice was faint and quivering, but the boys' father kept talking over his son, too angry to pay any mind to the quiet change in tone.

 

"If I hadn't pulled you out of there, who _knows_ what would have happened!" Gaster made a gesture with his hands as if to emphasize his point. "You're very fortunate that the human is weak and can't deal much damage at all in its current state or else we might be having worse problems here."

 

Papyrus didn't feel hurt at all, aside from the growing pain in his chest from his soul's constant thumping. Why wouldn't it stop? Why was it doing this at all? He gripped at the fabric of his shirt as if it would help to calm the ache, but nothing happened.

 

"I gave you both specific instructions! To not leave the office and only to watch the human from the monitors!" Gaster’s voice was rising in volume, his magic fizzling in his eye sockets angrily.

 

" _Dad_...." Sans' voice had gotten stronger and a little louder, but neither Papyrus or Gaster paid him any mind, too focused on other things to hear the odd tone he had taken.

 

"Was it so hard for you to listen to what I have to tell you? I understand that you wanted to see the human, but that little stunt you pulled put both you and the human into danger that I wasn't sure I could have prevented! You need to be careful with the human and yourself!"

 

" **_DAD!!_ **" Sans shouted, his voice cracking at the sudden change in volume. Gaster turned to face his eldest, fully prepared to snap at him, but the words died before they reached his teeth at the pale expression Sans had taken on.

 

His eye-lights had gone dark, and he was staring into the cell, beads of sweat forming and running down the sides of his skull. His ever-present smile looked taut and stressed, as though he were fighting to keep his face from suddenly dropping into something more grim. Papyrus took a moment to look up at his brother, also noting the concerning look on his brother's face.

 

"Brother..?" he said, his voice strained from trying to keep the pain he felt at bay. Sans made no verbal response, but instead raised a hand to point into the cell, his gaze seeming to be fixated on whatever had shaken him up so badly. Papyrus was willing to admit that the look Sans had on his face was scaring him, and that Sans never used it unless he was absolutely serious. Gaster and Papyrus both turned to peer into the cell through the electro-magic door, and both were immediately stunned back into silence.

 

The human was sitting where it had been before Gaster had pulled Papyrus out of the cell, but their soul was floating in front of their chest for the first time since it had arrived in the lab.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter four, and the soul is out! But what color is it? This chapter feels a little bit longer than the others, but I can assure you, this is not going to be a regular occurrence, much to my own dismay.  
> Next chapter has some more plot progression!


	5. Never Seen Before

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The human's soul color is revealed. Gaster makes an important decision

All three skeletons stared at the soul with wide eye sockets, drinking in the image of the human, curled on the floor and carefully cupping their soul in their hands. The soul seemed to move about almost erratically, and Papyrus could feel his soul trembling and fluttering in response to what he was seeing. Gaster had been right about the soul's color, it wasn't any of the core seven that they had heard about before, and none of them quite knew what to think or say.

 

The soul was a golden hue, though it was grayed and cracked around the edges, indicative of whatever had happened on the Surface. Nothing looked to be too fatal, but despite the painful look it had, it emanated a warm glow that coated the human's face and hands. There was something about the soul that drew in the skeletons’ attention, mesmerizing them, even though they knew what souls looked like, generally speaking. 

 

Even as it hovered, twitched, and moved, the soul held some unnatural beauty and something that felt warm and inviting in its presence, even just looking at it from a distance. It was pretty, and almost soothing, to look at, a rarity that may never be seen again, and all three skeletons took in the picture of that beautiful golden glow. The moment could almost be called serene, though it was really only a moment before the calm shattered.

 

Papyrus let out a startled cry of pain as his soul suddenly began beating wildly in his chest again, pressing to get out, urging him to go back into the cell at all costs. It acted as though it had a mind of its own, pressuring him forwards as though his life would depend upon him doing so. His grip on the front of his shirt tightened and he hunched over, trying to contain his soul from actually bursting through his ribcage in front of his family and a human with both of his hands. 

 

He would be utterly mortified with himself if he lost his composure so rapidly and in such a way that would cause him to show his soul to someone he just met. The two hadn't even really said a proper hello to each other or anything, he didn't even know their name! Though he was trying his best to keep himself somewhat dignified, his soul was insistent that he go back in.

 

Gaster looked at his son, who was curling in on himself as he sat, and a thread of concern twined itself through his mind, as well as a growing hypothesis about the human. Perhaps their soul had something that drew in monster's souls? If that were the case, why was only Papyrus being affected so deeply by just looking at them? Sans leaned down to try and help his brother, but Papyrus pushed him away with his free hand before he lurched to his feet to try and open the door again. 

 

Both of the older skeletons held him back and pulled him away from the scanner to push him up against the opposite wall, protesting his actions. All their pleading fell deaf to Papyrus, his aching soul pressing him forwards to meet the human again. Despite both Sans and Gaster holding him tightly, he was able to tear away and place his hand on the scanner, deactivating the door once more, and hurriedly stumbled in. 

 

Instantly, his soul calmed, and the thumping and aching went away from his ribcage, allowing him to relax. The human seemed to relax as well, their soul stopping its fluttering and resting in a peaceful hover over its hands, the golden glow seeming to grow a bit brighter. Papyrus walked over, a little quicker than before, and sat down in front of the human once again, crossing his legs neatly in front of him.

 

“What is your name?” he asked softly, but the human made no response to his question, only tipping its head to the side. Confused, Papyrus repeated it, slightly louder just in case he hadn’t been heard clearly, but there still was no response. He turned his head to face his father, a raised bone-brow asking the question he was thinking without speaking. Gaster sighed quietly and rubbed the sides of his skull in a slow circular motion.

 

“It is either mute, Papyrus, have something wrong in that brain of theirs that does not allow for speech, or someone never taught them how to speak,” he said, and folded his arms in front of him. “Something you would have know had you  _ stayed in the office _ and listened to what I was telling you.

 

A pang of guilt raced through the youngest skeleton’s body for a moment, and he turned away from his family quietly. He had been acting rather… boldly, to put it mildly, although perhaps rash was a better word to describe his manners. He couldn’t explain why his soul had cried out so desperately for this human or why it was causing him to do rash things, but it felt oddly natural to him, like he was  _ supposed _ to do this. But he could think about that and ask his father what was wrong with him later.

 

The human stayed fairly calm and practically motionless as he had been mulling over his thoughts, their soul still hovering peacefully above their cupped hands. Papyrus was compelled to help them as he gazed on their battered and scarred body and soul, his own soul feeling a pang of sympathy for whatever it had gone through. 

 

He could start with teaching them language, or at least attempting to do so. If they really were mute, that couldn’t be helped, but he could at least give it a shot. He turned his attention back to the human fully, giving them what he hoped looked like a friendly smile. Based on the fact that the human made no movement away or towards him, Papyrus guessed that he was at a standstill point.

 

“My name is Papyrus,” he said, slowly and softly while accompanying the words with a small gesture, placing his hand over his ribcage. The human’s brow wrinkled in thought, their soul disappearing back into their chest, then it mimicked his motion, placing their own hand on their chest slowly. While it was almost cute that the human was so puzzled, Papyrus forced himself to shake his head, then pointed at himself again with his hand.

 

“Papyrus,” he repeated, patting his shirt covered sternum gently as he said it, repeating his name a few more times slowly. For a moment, he worried that the human wouldn’t get what he was trying to do, but just as he was thinking it, the human removed their hand from their chest to point at him with a finger, their eyebrows raised inquisitively. Papyrus felt a smile come over his features and he nodded approvingly.

 

“Yes! Papyrus, say my name, Papyrus.” He did his best to make his voice as encouraging as he could, in order to get the human to at least try to speak. It licked its lips, a frown coming over their face, and their lips moved silently as if they tried to speak without providing sound. A small sound of frustration came from their throat, a promising sign that it could make sound, but Papyrus tried again, repeating his name softly.

 

“Puh… Puh….”

 

Papyrus sat up a little straighter in shock, and he heard a low, surprised mumble coming from Sans somewhere behind him. He leaned forwards just a bit towards the human, who was no longer looking at him, but staring down into their lap in concentration. The human seemed to be getting closer, and he could almost see them thinking.

 

“Papyrus,” he said, eagerness filling his voice. The human was going to say his name! His soul thumped in his chest again, though with a much lighter feeling than it had been before, as if it could soar freely and float to the Surface on its own.

 

“Pahp… Pah-paye… Pah-pyersss… Papyrsss,” the human said slowly, trying to mimic what he had said. Papyrus could barely contain himself from screaming with joy, but he forced himself to stay calm as to not frighten the life out of them. 

 

Suddenly, their green eyes looked right into his, and their mouth opened again, a single word falling out of their parted lips quietly and carefully, as though uncertain that it would say the right thing. Their voice was rough and dry, as though the human hadn’t used it in quite some time, but it was soft and almost musical to Papyrus’ non-existent ears.

 

“Papyrus..?”

 

At this, Papyrus felt his whole body buzz with energy and joy, nearly sending him to his feet though he forced himself to stay calm and to not freak the human out. He opted for a beaming smile and a few claps of his hands instead, and the human seemed to react in a surprised but positive manner. Their mouth twitched at the corners, and for a moment he thought he saw traces of a smile, though it disappeared as quickly as it had come.

 

“Well I’ll be damned,” Sans muttered behind his brother, now leaning in the doorway. “You got them to speak when they’ve been here and apparently haven’t spoken a word for at least a year. Good job bro.”

 

Papyrus whipped around with a harsh glare, his jaws opening to remind his brother to keep an eye on his vulgarities, especially in front of the human when the human’s voice stopped him. It was saying his name again, softer, pleadingly, as if to call his attention away from tormenting his brother and to focus elsewhere.

 

Papyrus smiled at the human again, and almost offered his hand to them, but pulled it away upon remembering the shock that had jolted through his arm earlier. The human’s green eyes stayed calmly on his face, and then looked down at the food packet in their hand, forgotten momentarily in the face of learning something new. The youngest skeleton’s gaze followed theirs and he placed a hand on his skull in remembrance.

 

“Oh!! You still have not eaten anything yet have you?” he exclaimed, bringing his hand down to his chin in thought. “No matter, I, the Great Papyrus, can assist you in that area as well! If you will allow it, of course. May I?” He reached out his hand, first pointing to the food packet, then flattening out his palm to take it.

 

The human seemed confused, and Papyrus recalled that the human had only just figured out how to say his name and most likely wouldn’t get what he was trying to say. Thinking quickly, he gestured for the food packet again, and the human handed it to him, though their face fell into disappointment. It slowly dawned on him that it thought he was taking away their food that he had given, but he shook his head quickly.

 

“No no!” he said, waving his hands to the side in an attempt to placate the human. “I was not going to keep the food away from you, human! Here, let me show you what I meant….” 

 

He took the food packet and tore it open with ease, revealing a small bar of oats and nuts packed together with honey and chocolate. He heard a whine escape the human’s throat, and he glanced up at them momentarily. It was staring at the bar with longing and if he looked hard enough, he could almost be certain that they were drooling at the sight of it. Was the human really that hungry? Papyrus broke off a small piece of the bar, just to start them off, and held it out to them. 

 

The human hesitated, looking between him and the piece of food, before taking it, almost snatching it really, and beginning to eat. Papyrus was a little shocked they had dug in so ravenously to the piece, it must have been starving itself worse than Gaster had said, because he knew that his father would feed them regularly. Speaking of his father, he set the bar down and turned to look at both his father and his brother.

 

Gaster had a strange expression on his face, as if he were thinking very hard about something that was either unpleasant or very puzzling. Sans had a tense air about him, though he was trying to play it cool and was still leaning against the doorframe as casually as he could. The tension in his brother’s shoulders told him that he was anything but relaxed at the moment, probably still stressed from his earlier actions.

 

Papyrus looked between the two of them for a moment, unsure of what to do. The thumping of his soul in his ribcage had stopped entirely, and as a result it was no longer pulling him to do anything. It didn’t tell him to stay or to go, but now rested calmly as though none of what had happened earlier actually was real.

 

“Farewell human! I shall return soon, I hope,” Papyrus said as he stood up, smiling one more time at the human. It looked up at him, the corners of their mouth twitching again, and he felt his soul thump against his ribcage a final time. He really would have to ask his father what was happening to him, because he worried that he was falling ill in a short amount of time. He turned to leave, stretching his bones in a satisfactory way, but paused and looked back when he heard the human speak his name again.

 

“Papyrus…,” they said softly once more, sitting up on their knees as if about to stop him from going anywhere, their expression seeming to be worried. He smiled, his soul warmed by their connection, and he reached out to touch the top of their head without thinking about it. When he made contact, another jolt ran up his arm, though much less intense than the first one had been. 

 

He bore the feeling as best as he could, and the electric sensation rapidly faded into something warmer, gentler, and more inviting. This feeling was… nice, if he really thought about it. The human recoiled a tad initially, but as his hand continued to make contact, it seemed to very faintly lean into the touch.

 

“I shall see you again soon, worry not human,” he said reassuringly, leaving his hand a moment more before pulling it away. The warmth that had run into him faded slowly and it left a hollow feeling in his ribcage, a longing for more, but he pushed it aside. Papyrus walked out of the cell calmly, a smile still present on his face, and turned to face his brother and father again. 

 

They were both staring at him oddly, though neither one said anything for a few moments. Gaster turned to close the electro-magic door with his hand, and the three of them started walking away from the cell in silence, which worried Papyrus. Sure, he had disobeyed his father and done several things that had the potential to get him seriously injured or even killed, but at the same time, he had made progress with the human. 

 

His father had told them on multiple occasions that there were problems he had trying to get the human to speak or to show their soul. He had done what his father couldn’t do for almost a whole year in a matter of minutes. That alone was something to be marveled, and yet the silence was pressing in on him from both his father and brother.

 

The trio of skeletons all went back into the elevator together, riding it up to Gaster’s office, and closed the door behind them. Gaster sank into his office chair, his eye sockets narrowed in concentration, Sans leaned up against the small portion of wall that was left untouched by papers or a bookshelf, and Papyrus stood by the door. 

 

The silence was almost suffocating, though Papyrus, for once, had no idea what to say in order to fill it. He shifted his weight from side to side, fully expecting that Gaster would punish him, or at least scold him again, but his father was quiet for several minutes more. Sans, on the other hand, seemed almost to boil over at the prolonged quiet.

 

“So what exactly were you thinking when you went down there, huh?” he said, his voice filled with a cool anger, one that told Papyrus that he wasn’t as mad as he could get, but that he was still very mad.

 

“Well…,” Papyrus started, hesitating to blatantly mention his soul. “I… I was not thinking really. I felt something, something  _ very _ strong, in my soul that told me to go to the human. It was almost painful, and if I had done nothing, I was sure that my soul would have shattered my ribcage to pieces. I had to go, I needed to be with the human.”

 

It wasn’t a very good explanation, and even to himself it sounded like a hollow excuse. However it may have sounded though, it was the truth. His soul had cried out for that human like it was a dry fish crying for water, and he was certain that he had done the right thing in the end. Sans and their father didn’t seem to agree with him, and he knew that the reason why they did was very good. It  _ was _ a foolish thing to do, and it could have gotten him hurt, there was no doubt about that.

 

“You realize that the human could have hurt you?” Sans asked, bristling with anger. “We have heard of it time and time again that when humans fall that they are capable of causing a monster to _dust_ , Papyrus. That’s how dangerous they can all be, and you decided to not only get that close to them without any form of protecting yourself, but you went and touched it, _twice_! Did you think about the fact that it could have _killed_ you when you “felt” that you needed to be there with that human?”

 

Sans’ voice had risen by the end of his little lecture, and he had moved closer to Papyrus, standing right in front of him. His eye-lights had disappeared in favor of empty darkness, and his ever-present smile had actually managed to turn downwards into a frown. Papyrus couldn’t meet his brother’s gaze, the guilt of his actions and the weight of the situation beginning to sink in. 

 

“No…,” he said after a long pause. In truth, he had detected no danger at all from the human, and their soul had radiated such a calm and welcoming aura that he felt no need to try and protect himself. Sans had a point, however. He hadn’t thought, and he never really did when he needed to, as his brother liked to point out at times like this.

 

“ _ I guess I need to be more careful the next time I try to do something like that,”  _ Papyrus thought to himself.  _ “But the human seemed so broken, and in need of a good friend, and I wanted them to have that sort of friend. Perhaps I should be more cautious next time, if there even  _ **_is_ ** _ a next time.” _ Just as Papyrus opened his mouth to speak to Sans again, ready to try and defend himself, Gaster spoke up before he had the chance, effectively cutting off whatever he was going to say. 

 

“Papyrus,” he said, his voice strong and commanding attention from the both of his sons. “I want you to come with me regularly to the lab and do testing with me for the human.” Sans whipped around quickly to face their father, eye sockets wide. For a moment, he seemed speechless, but quickly found his voice again.

 

“ **_What???_ ** ” he said incredulously. “You can’t be serious, after what he did and what could have happened? You’re going to let him come in here whenever you do a test and have him run the tests with you? You said yourself that he did something stupid! Why in Asgore’s name are you going to let him do that?”

 

“Because, Sans,” Gaster said, rising from his chair and striding over to the brothers smoothly. “If you had taken notice of anything other than what your brother was actually doing, you would have noticed how he was reacting to the human’s soul. It was… affecting him in an unusual way that didn’t happen to either of us.” He placed a hand on both brothers’ shoulders gently, the touch startling them both a little.

 

“There was an odd connection between the two of them that I wish to study further,” He continued, looking between his two sons pointedly, “as I have never encounter this, or even heard of it. I need to know what is happening, and this may be the key to getting us all out of the Underground in a shorter amount of time, so he will accompany me for testing.”

 

Sans said nothing, but turned his gaze down towards the floor, confusion and anger knitted across his brow bone. Papyrus turned to his father, who had placed a holey hand on his shoulder and was now looking at him with an intense look that he had never seen before, at least, not directed at him anyways. Gaster smiled at his youngest son, and gave his shoulder a reassuring pat.

 

“I’ll take you here tomorrow morning to start the testing, bright and early,” he said, beginning to take up the mess of notes on his desk and organize them. “For now we will head back and get some rest. Tomorrow is the start of something wonderful and new, and it will be quite the experiment.” 

 

While Papyrus didn’t quite like the excited tone that his father had when saying the word “experiment”, he found himself nodding. The human would be waiting for him tomorrow and he would be able to interact with them again, which made his soul feel lighter already. If only tomorrow could get here sooner, then he could finally make his way into the royal guard…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What does Gaster have in store leading through this experiment? What's up with Papyrus? All shall be revealed soon, I promise!  
> Also, apologies on making you guys wait for this update, I've been hoping for a few beta readers/editors to get back to me on the story before I posted, but I wanted to make sure another chapter got up soon.


	6. Testing the Waters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus has a lot of questions but doesn't know how exactly to express them. Gaster reveals something that neither his sons or the human realize.

Papyrus had hardly slept the entire night, his mind awhirl with all that could happen tomorrow at the lab with the human. Sure he was excited to be going and to be included with the arrangements of a human, after all, he did want to be in the Royal Guard, but something felt odd. His father was never usually this excited about something, and he knew that the human’s soul was a part of it, but now his own soul was a part of it? 

 

What could be so different that he would need to do testing as well now? Had the human had such a great effect on him that now his soul had been tampered with or made different? It would certainly explain what happened with his soul beating so furiously that it would have come through his ribcage. 

 

But even though he couldn’t be certain, something about the encounter with the human had seemed…  _ natural. _ Like he was supposed to have all of those things happen, as unfamiliar and odd as they were. Though his skull was protesting that he shouldn’t have even done that brash action at all, his soul was condoning it.

 

There was also something that was almost unsettling about the enthusiasm his father carried, but he reassured himself that it was fine for now. He would have a chance to ask him about the experiment and the human itself at a later time, maybe during a break. Yet he still couldn’t shake his uneasiness about the strange happenings. Would he ever find out about his soul? Was the human okay? Could he really go through with the tests if something had happened to him? 

 

The young skeleton spent much of the night tossing and turning until he fell into an uneasy sleep, his mind plagued with the unanswered questions and visions of the human sitting in their cell. It felt like ages until the dawn would come, but Papyrus forced himself to try and sleep, rather unsuccessfully. When the morning finally came, he got himself dressed and headed to the kitchen to grab some breakfast, as well as something that the human might be able to eat. Gaster was already seated at the table when Papyrus came in, sipping a cup of coffee absentmindedly.

 

“Ah, good morning, Papyrus,” he greeted warmly, a smile curling up around the corners of his mouth. “How did you sleep last night?” Papyrus winced internally at how little sleep he had actually gotten, and decided it was best to try and cover up the fact that his mind had been churning for over half of the night with a simple “good” as an answer.

 

“I do hope you’ll be ready for assisting me in the lab today,” his father said, swirling the coffee in his mug lazily. “It’ll be fairly easy to start, but I’ll tell you more when we get to the lab, alright? Do make sure you bring something for the human, as well, I’m sure it would appreciate the gesture.”

 

“Of course, Dad,” Papyrus replied, getting some cereal out of the cabinet to eat and grabbed a few more food packets, this time some nuts and another oat bar. He ate his breakfast quietly and quickly, before he turned to his father, who was still nursing the same cup of coffee, though his focus was on his son through the side of his eye socket. Papyrus fidgeted with his phalanges under the table, unsure of if he should ask what he had been stressing over the night before.

 

_ Better to ask now than later right? After all, he would know so much more than I would about the nature of souls, monster, human, or otherwise. _

 

“Hey, Dad?” Gaster hummed a response and Papyrus suddenly found that he couldn’t meet his father’s gaze. “Can I ask you something about the human? I think it might be something really important, and I am very worried about it….”

 

Gaster was quiet for a moment, setting his cup of coffee down on the table softly before he folded his hands in front of him. A tension filled the air and Papyrus found himself increasingly uncomfortable with what he wanted to ask. His skull was buzzing with all sorts of things to say, questions in need of answers, but no sound left his mouth. 

 

Gaster sat patiently, a small sigh passing through his teeth, leaving his gaze on Papyrus, carefully watching his expressions. Papyrus, on the other hand, was too focused on all of the things running through his mind to really notice that his father was examining him closely. His inner turmoil was keeping his skull too occupied for him to even look up from the table.

 

_ What was wrong with my soul? Was the human really hurting me like Sans had been thinking? What had made me so desperate all of a sudden to be with the human? Is there something that the human did that made me like this? I was fine just a few minutes before I got to the lab. What will happen to me if I fail my tests? What will happen to the human? _

 

His soul thumped in his ribcage again, not painfully, but a reminder of what had happened just a few hours ago. Papyrus almost put his hand up to his ribcage, but thought better of it and instead folded his hands on the table. Despite the reigning chaos in his head, he opened his mouth to ask a question, hoping that he sounded composed enough to be normal.

 

“The human is… less than stable, is it not?” This wasn’t where he wanted to go with the questions, so he quickly spoke again before his father could say anything. “D-do you think that this is the reason that I was so… so reckless yesterday? Because their soul’s instability had some sort of effect on me?”

 

“While that is a possibility, yes, I don’t think it’s the only thing that could have happened to you, Papyrus,” Gaster responded coolly, taking another sip from his mug. “I have a few different hypotheses about the human, regarding what may have caused the change in your behavioral patterns. There is still much that is unknown about the human and their soul, and as you could see, I have made little progress with them. I also have a few hypotheses about you as well in relation to the ones about the human.” 

 

Papyrus let out a noise of surprise, but his father raised a hand, waving the matter away before he could even say anything in response. “Yes, yes, I have hypotheses about  _ you _ , but worry not. I will only perform a few different tests on you that will differ from the ones that I perform on the human. I think you will both be a positive influence on each other, as a starting point, and there are some things I want to try with that in my own time. But for now, we will start simply. Are you ready to go?”

 

Papyrus glanced down at his empty bowl before nodding and standing up to put his dishes away in the sink. He took note that his hands were trembling slightly, though from what he couldn’t tell. Gaster waited for him patiently, then the two set off for the River-Person just outside of Snowdin to head to Hotlands. The boat ride was quiet between the two skeletons, and aside from the pleasantries given to the River-Person and a few of the passengers, they said nothing. 

 

The tension between them was almost tangible, though Gaster seemed much more relaxed than his son did, as Papyrus kept fidgeting with his scarf and his phalanges, anything that kept him from looking at his father. Papyrus was nearly bursting with questions, but he didn’t quite know how to put it all together. He wanted answers, but he just didn’t know what to say that would keep his father from thinking he was crazy or stupid. He would hate it if he said something that was supposed to be obvious but didn’t know it.

 

The youngest skeleton was also worried that he would fail his tests, not that he even knew what tests he was going to be subjected to at all. Suppose he got close to passing and still fell short? He had to force himself to think of other things, but that only worked for a little while, making his soul uneasy. 

 

It was probably best for him to stop worrying about it, though it wasn’t easy as the pair soon walked up to the lab. Papyrus was quiet as Gaster led him down the correct set of halls to get to his office, then had Papyrus sit down in a spare chair. The eldest skeleton sat at his desk and began to sort through some of his papers before turning to address his nervous son.

 

“Now, I do believe that I need to let you know what sorts of tests we shall be doing today, so I’ll give you the short version. Your soul has made a connection to the human’s, and I can see that even now you are beginning to respond to being close to their presence, aren’t you?” the eldest skeleton asked. Papyrus jolted slightly in his seat, looking away from his father’s gaze. Gaster said nothing, but kept an eye socket on him as he pulled out his journal as his son dealt with his inner turmoil.

 

Papyrus was hoping he wouldn’t notice that part about his soul, but his soul was beginning to thump in his chest again, begging him to go see the human. Why had it begun to do this? He couldn’t understand it at all, and now that he was back in the lab, it was becoming a painful experience again, like it had been yesterday. He glanced down at his ribcage for a moment, and placed a hand over where his soul would be carefully. 

 

“I could see it in your expression once we got closer to my office,” Gaster said, jotting down some notes in his journal before he turned to face Papyrus again. “For today, I simply want you to interact with the human in whatever way you see fit. I will remain here and watch from the monitor, and I will be able to hear you as well. Do not worry, if anything should happen, I will be there in a moment’s notice. Today is merely observational.”   
  


With that, Gaster turned away from his youngest son and flicked on the monitor, preparing a journal and some pens for the writing. Papyrus blinked in surprise, but didn’t question what he had been told, instead moving to go back to the elevator they had just left a minute ago. His nerves about failing any of the tests today fell away once his father had said it was purely observation for at least today. His soul began to thump in his ribcage pleadingly, telling him to go and see the human already, and this time he wasn’t going to resist the calling of his soul.

 

He hurried as fast as he could once the office door was closed behind him, eager to make it back to the human and to stop the pounding of his soul. Within moments, he was racing down the hall to meet the human, and it seemed rather eager to have him return to visit, saying his name in a light voice. Back in the office, Gaster watched the monitor carefully until he could see his son appear on the screen, sitting back with a satisfied smile. 

 

The two had bonded almost instantly, and he knew somewhere within his skull that this was something that most monsters would never experience, even though there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for it. After all, he had experienced it for himself, though that was a long time ago, almost too long ago to remember. It was a truly rare occurrence now, but he had seen it done time and time again, both on the Surface and in the Underground.

 

This kind of bond was near impossible to break, and from what he had experienced, it took something as strong as death to sever. Gaster’s soul thumped sorrowfully in his ribcage at the thought, but he brushed it aside, like he had so many times before this one. Now was not the time to be thinking of such things, not when he had the chance to get to observe such a beautiful thing blossoming before him. It wasn’t what one would expect, certainly, but nonetheless he was eager to see where this experience took his son and the human. 

 

If he presumed correctly, they both would get something very beneficial to the both of them after this experiment was done. He had to be careful, however, especially in the early stages, so that he didn’t do anything to ruin what they could create. That was precisely why he would simply observe for now, interference would only damage the results. This was a rather delicate process that he may never get a chance to see again if even a small detail went awry.

 

He folded his hands as he watched Papyrus sit down with the human and share food with them, as he had done yesterday. The human was responsive to whatever Papyrus did, making no attempt to shut his son out like it had with him, instead sitting with open body language. Papyrus spoke with delight in his voice and began to “chat” with them, smiling broadly every time it said his name or tried to make other words to try and communicate to the young skeleton. 

 

Of course, Papyrus was having a great time getting to talk, even though his conversational partner wasn’t able to say much, and the human was extremely trusting of his youngest son, almost to the point of being outright friendly to him. To an outsider, it would have almost seemed to be odd, how the two of them had managed to get so close and trusted with each other in just a few minutes of knowing each other. Gaster knew better than that though, and a smile curled up the corners of his mouth again. It all made perfect sense.

  
They  _ were _ soulmates, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO I WAS GONNA UPDATE SOONER BUT THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN. Whelp, this is a shorter chapter but it reveals a little bit more about relationships AND something important!! I will try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can, but I might have to go back and make edits on chapters because I have had no editing done before. This chapter is mostly for plot progression in a pretty boring way, but it's gotta be done before we move on to other things.  
> Next chapter will have more plot progression!


	7. Tests of the Soul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that the human is on the mend, Gaster returns to his original plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter contains mentions of needles and mild torture and pain, reader discretion is advised. This chapter is slightly less essential to the plot line as a whole, so it can be skipped if need be. A summary of what happened will be in the end notes for any readers who need to skip through but want to know what goes on in this chapter.

Gaster grabbed the testing sheet from the spot it lay on the desk, humming in delight at the change in results from the past three sessions. The human was definitely responding positively to Papyrus’ presence, and it showed. It was only getting better and better, both physically and mentally, finally eating food again, being more active, and showing improving signs of stability. 

He conjured a few magic hands to grab the necessary clipboard and supplies from various places in his lab, setting them all on the examination table he was preparing to use for the day. This test would be strenuous, but now with Papyrus regularly coming through the lab to make sure she- no,  _ it  _ was stabilizing properly, the human was sure to recover. There would be no reason for him to be worried, not that he was anyway. Nothing could go wrong today, he made sure of it.

The scientist took great pride in making sure all of his experiments and projects were nothing but thorough. He took every measure necessary, and some that weren’t, if it made sure that every t was crossed and i dotted. There was a reason he was the Royal Scientist, and he hadn’t earned that title by being like his eldest son all day. He was grateful though that there were no incidents yet where Sans had probed into his business, still too shocked by what he had seen on the first day of meeting the human.

_ It doesn’t matter so long as he doesn’t get any ideas about trying to do something to the human while I am unaware of it. I highly doubt he would try anything after all. Papyrus, on the other hand, will be a bit more difficult to manage, especially given what has been going on with the human’s soul and his. All the same, I will not fail in this project. _

Gaster finished gathering the materials he  needed, and moved out of the room to go and fetch the human. Getting them to come with him today would most likely be filled with idle babbling and chatter. It had been learning to speak from Papyrus, something he was both grateful for and despised. Grateful because now he could ask some very,  _ very _ simple questions to them, but despising it because there were days when it wouldn’t shut up. 

 

There would be times when it would chatter at him meaninglessly, incessantly, like a child who hadn’t learned the meaning of the word “quiet” yet. Papyrus was frequently mentioned, specifically when he wasn’t there, and it would ask where he was. Gaster made sure his answers were clipped and short, trying to give the hint that he didn’t want to talk, but that only seemed to fuel the human’s poor attempts at conversation. 

 

In fact, those sorts of answers only seemed to spur the human on, asking him about other things he had nearby. Their speech was broken and very childish, despite the adult nature of their body, and Gaster’s patience ran thin. It had been such a long time since he actually had to try and understand a child’s speech, as both his sons were far past that stage. Despite that setback, he managed to endure it so that he could make his checks to the human’s emotional and mental state.

 

He approached the room as he usually did and opened the door to step inside the small cell. The human turned at his approach, eyes glimmering with hope for a moment before the expression dropped to something disappointed. That was always satisfying for him to see, the crushed look of desperation on their face when they realized it was only him, and not his son like it wanted. 

 

_ It’s almost cathartic, soothing really, to see their mood so utterly crushed like that by my simple appearance in place of Papyrus. It feels like there’s a sense of justice in it, causing a small portion of what I felt in this pitiful little human.  _

 

“Papyrus?” the human questioned softly and Gaster could already feel himself bracing for the inevitable onslaught of meaningless words. He let out a small sigh, then gestured to the human to have it follow him, hoping that they would be somewhat compliant today. It stood up slowly and trailed after him as he walked back to the room he had prepared. 

 

The human followed him with little trouble, knowing that he was able to toss them around easily with his magic. There had been little resistance from the human as of late, though the reasoning for this was a bit of a mystery to him. Normally, there was a constant stream of nearly nonsensical questioning and random sounds, but not so today. Their chatter was quiet and almost tolerable this time, and he was able to deflect all babbling into answers that didn’t require too much thought.

 

He had the human step inside the room, then gestured for them to get up on the table. It hesitated momentarily, eyeing the tools he had out, but the human complied and sat on the edge of the table. He could thank the submissive nature ingrained into them on the Surface for that. Gaster used a magic hand to force them to lay down, then set about grabbing the appropriate tools. 

 

Today, he was going to extract a sample from their soul, as long as it was able to be summoned, which was more of a chore than it should be. It was leagues easier to pull the human’s soul now than it had been before it met Papyrus, but it still required more effort than he wanted. The human was surprisingly adept at keeping their soul protected, most likely from the years of abuse it had experienced on the surface. 

 

Gaster concentrated a small pool of magic over the human’s rib cage, then made a pulling motion. It worked, and a small, broken, golden soul floated up over its chest, causing the human to hum quietly in awe. Much like himself, it seemed to be curious about its own soul and the pretty color it emanated in a soft glow. Their reasons for being fascinated by their soul, however, were much different than his own, of course.

 

A wave of his hand formed some magical bonds on the human’s arms and legs, as well as a thicker one around their midsection. Sturdy and secure, meant to keep it from moving while he worked. This was a delicate procedure after all, and if the human was thrashing about on the table, it could potentially cause him to err, which could be fatal.  A squeak of surprise escaped its mouth, and it began to babble in a panic, and if he wasn’t mistaken, there was  _ begging _ in there. 

 

_ I’m not sure where the human learned how to beg, but it matters not to me. I will have what I want by the end of this process, regardless of what they may wish me to do or not do. If they decide to try and beg for their safety, it can do so all it likes, as long as I can make sure the sample is taken. _

 

He lifted a heavy syringe with a sharp needle attached to it, sterilizing the end appropriately, and the human began to cry. Large tears welled up in its eyes, and more begging fell in a large rush past their lips. Normally the sound would be something bothersome, a thing he hated, but knowing that this time it was out of  _ fear _ sent different feelings altogether through his bones. He chuckled darkly, bringing the syringe over to the table and looking the human in the eyes.

 

They were utterly petrified in this exact moment, and he  _ relished _ in that look that it was giving him. The abject terror in its eyes made them glitter in a way he hadn’t seen since he first brought them here to the lab. The human’s eyes were locked directly onto the needle, and a tiny whine left their throat out of terror. A tiny curl of pride and, oddly enough, justice coiled through his soul, just satisfying enough to be addicting.

 

_ I’m going to enjoy this part of the process a lot more than I probably should. All in the name of science, but if I get to be entertained with a sight such as this while I work, then that’s two for one.  _

 

As expected, the human began attempting to thrash against his bonds as he brought the needle closer to its soul, even though they knew nothing about what it meant. The soul itself began to move in a panicked manner, but he managed to keep it still with another wave of magic from his hand. Slowly, carefully, he brought the needle to press against the surface of the soul, then pressed inwards, puncturing the surface of the soul.

 

Instantly, the human let out a shriek that was almost at a high enough decibel level to shatter his bones and dust him. Thankfully it was just sound, and he wouldn’t be hurt by a mere sound, no matter how shrill or loud it was. It would not deter him from the task at hand, and so he continued onwards, applying more pressure to the end of the syringe. The screaming persisted, and any babbling became even more nonsensical, if that were even possible. 

 

Gaster grit his teeth together and kept his hands steady, making sure that there was not going to be any shaking in his hands. He pressed the needle in further, eliciting another cry of pain from the human. The needle’s point was just deep enough that he could extract a sample safely; too shallow and it would be useless, too deep and it could leave permanent damage to the soul.

 

_ I can endure this disgusting noise, as long as I can get what I need from the human. Just a little bit more so that I can extract enough of the soul’s essence to study what makes this human the way they are. I  _ **_need_ ** _ to know what this soul’s core trait is, and I have to get this so I can figure it out. _

 

Gaster began to pull on the syringe plunger, the tube beginning to fill with a golden glow matching the soul of the human. The human was getting louder and began pleading with him so fervently that he actually stopped for a moment. The cries persisted, and for whatever reason, he found himself trembling faintly in his phalanges. The feeling of his fingers trembling was almost enough to get him to stop what he was doing, hesitation mixing into his soul.

 

He quickly shook off the shock and began pulling on the syringe again until the tube was almost completely full. The soul now floated, the glow it gave off much dimmer than it had been before, though it was already weak to begin with. Gaster swirled the essence around in the tube with a smile coming to his skull at the amount of strong substance he had pulled. 

 

He released the human’s soul and allowed it to return to its body, and then dispersed the magic holding them down. The human tumbled from the table, their body shaking so hard it couldn’t do anything except cry and shake. Gaster glanced down at them momentarily, then used his magic to start moving the human back to its cell. It didn’t fight him, instead choosing to whimper and lay as still as it possibly could to prevent further injury. 

 

Once Gaster reached the cell, he dumped the human unceremoniously onto the small cot that was its bed. There was a small noise of protest, but the scientist paid it no mind. He had what he needed in order to get started on the testing of the soul’s essence. All he needed was a few hours to get everything all set up and then it should be smooth sailing from there to get the data he needed.

 

He wasn’t anticipating the soul essence suddenly graying the moment he exited the room, and he watched in horror as it vanished into what appeared thin air. In an uncharacteristic bout of rage, he threw the now empty tube down on the tile with a growl, effectively smashing it. An exasperated glare was thrown over his shoulder at the human, who had not moved from its bed, and it seemed to have no knowledge of what transpired. 

 

_ You are going to be much more of an enigma than I had hoped you would be. This is the most challenging, infuriating, and most difficult puzzle that I have ever encountered in my years working as a scientist. _

 

Gaster let out a sigh, running his hands over his face in a motion of tired defeat. He summoned more of his magic to clean up the mess he made, grumbling as he did so. The human continued to whine away in the room, and the scientist was not interested in hearing any incoherent mumbling at the moment. He moved away from the door, back towards his office, the gears in his skull whirling away. 

 

_ If I cannot extract soul essence, I can’t test it for the main components that make up the human’s soul. How am I going to perform the necessary tests if I am unable to even get the essence from it? There are too many variables not in my favor at the moment; I need more time and a better plan of action. _

 

Gaster made it back into his messy office and began to write his notes furiously, trying to place all of the information he had learned in his fruitless endeavors onto paper. There was too much that was unknown, and he needed answers, and fast. With his own fervor forcing him to burn through his pen’s ink, he jotted down all he could before he rested.

 

Once all of the notes were completed, he sat back and sipped at a mug of coffee that was now cold and disgusting. He made a small face, but continued to drink the dark liquid anyways, hoping the small boost of caffeine would jog some ideas for later times. If he tried a few other methods of extraction he may have more success than he did today. That was the hope, but he had yet to act on anything good yet.

 

_ An enigma and a puzzle indeed. It will take more time than I would like, but I am a patient monster, ready to try anything I can. Worry not, little human, I will not be letting you be for too long. I have encountered a challenging puzzle in trying to unravel the very fabric of your soul. _

 

Perhaps the human’s soul was still too weak to be extracted from just yet, even for the progress it had made. It had seemed strong enough, but it suffered much longer on the Surface than it had been Underground. There was so much more that could be improved in its condition, but the soul would require a lot more proper healing. More sessions with Papyrus would be in order for the appropriate conditioning to get the measures of repair that he wanted to see.

 

A smirk came to his skull and Gaster found himself chuckling into his mug of cold, gross coffee as he leaned back in his chair. He watched the human move ever so slightly on the camera with a practiced care and he drained his coffee mug of the caffeinated liquid. The mug clicked lightly as he set it down on the desk beside his papers and he began to write again, hoping to come up with an appropriate solution to his dilemma. 

 

_ A true challenge indeed, but the most difficult puzzles always have the most satisfying solutions, do they not? I will find out what makes your soul tick, and then I will be able to let you go into Asgore’s care. This is going to be most intriguing. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who needed to skip this chapter: Gaster took the human and took a sample of their soul with a syringe/needle combo. The human was in a lot of pain because of them having their soul directly attacked, and Gaster mildly enjoys causing a human pain. 
> 
> A bit of a shorter chapter today, but something that is important to keep in mind is that Gaster wanted to know what their soul is made of. Next chapter is going to contain more experimentation and mentions of blood/gore/injuries, reader discretion is advised again.
> 
> Bother me on Tumblr! [Here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)


	8. Something's Wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus gets to see a small glimpse into the testing his father has been conducting on the human.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter contains heavy mentions of blood/injury. Reader discretion is advised. If you need to skip, there will be a summarization in the end notes. Stop reading at the lines "Nonsense, Papyrus,” Gaster responded." Do not continue, as the chapter ends shortly after.

Several months had passed since Papyrus had begun to attend the testing sessions of the human. She was getting more adept at language and speaking in full sentences now, which made it a lot easier to have a conversation with her. She had learned about Sans, Gaster, their home, and Papyrus’ hopes of becoming a Royal Guard, though she was  understandably rather put off by that statement. He learned a little about them as well, such as she was a female, though she didn’t have a name, which was worrying.

 

Papyrus really liked talking to her, and he wanted to see her every single day, but it was getting tougher to do so. He had begun to train for a sentry position, which consumed a lot of his time, and he was unable to visit as often as he wanted to. The human was understanding, but she always appeared so sad when he left, and he knew that his father wasn’t much for conversations. His soul ached whenever he thought of her sitting in the little cell, waiting patiently for him to return just so she could speak with someone.

 

Come to think of it, his soul was doing really strange things when he was around the human, or even when he was just thinking about her. He would drift into thinking about how she was doing when he had a moment to spare, then his soul would start fluttering in his ribcage. Sometimes it would even start to glow, which he hastily would put out lest he be seen with his soul exposed. That would be rather embarrassing, and inappropriate conduct for a future member of the Royal Guard.

 

Papyrus brushed those thoughts aside for the moment as he walked into the lab, greeting the scientists that he had become familiar with. His father had specifically requested today that Papyrus be present for the testing for something he had in mind. The entirety of the testing beforehand was just observational, but apparently Gaster was ready to move out of that phase. 

 

The route to Gaster’s office and to the cell where the human was kept was ingrained into Papyrus’ skull, and he was fairly certain now that he could walk it with his eye sockets shut. Even if he did get lost, he was sure his soul would lead him to where he needed to be, no matter what. Once he reached the office door, he noticed a small note in his father’s handwriting taped to the front. Papyrus pulled it off of the door to read.

 

_ Papyrus, _

_ I need you to meet me at the testing facility with the human. You can go and retrieve her yourself, but I need you to bring them as soon as you can. She knows where it is. It is very important that you are punctual, though I’m sure you know that. See you soon. _

_ With love, Dad. _

 

Papyrus smiled to himself and pocketed the note, turning back to the elevator to go down to where the human was. His soul was pulling for him to go there anyway, but he was used to the feeling by now, though he put a hand to his chest to calm himself regardless. He walked the familiar hallway again, stopped at the appropriate section, and opened the electro-magic door with his hand. 

 

The human was sitting there, wearing some of Sans’ old clothes, even though they didn’t fit her body at all. Papyrus had insisted that she wear something clean and decent, and had even given her things to help her clean the dirt out of her skin and hair. She seemed much better after getting her body clean, and appeared much healthier than when she had first arrived to the Underground. 

 

She turned to face him when the door had opened, a bright smile coming to her face as she saw him. He couldn’t get enough of that smile, especially as she had only begun to do it in the past five weeks. It made her green eyes twinkle and her whole face scrunched up in the funniest but most pretty way he had ever seen. 

 

He  _ loved _ her smile, which practically lit up her entire face with the raw emotion of happiness. Her pale skin was practically glowing today, no doubt because of his help in getting her to eat food, and her dark, nearly black hair looked like she had cleaned it before he had gotten here. Papyrus was proud of the improvements she was making, and for all the ways he had been able to help her.

 

The human came bounding over to him, her feet pattering softly on the cold tiles of the floor as she approached and her arms open wide. He opened his arms in response and gave her a great big hug, pulling her up off of her feet and into the air, as she was a good deal shorter than he was. The height difference didn’t really bother him, as it simply made his hugs feel a lot better, safer even.

 

The warm feeling he had felt when they had first made contact for a long time flowed into his soul again, and he relished in the feeling. It was almost addictive, how welcoming, soft, and magical this feeling was, and it was like nothing he had ever experienced before. Any physical contact brought the feeling to his soul, but a hug was the strongest and quickest way to receive the most potent version.

 

“Hello Papyrus,” she said, her voice as soft as his scarf and smooth as an icicle, much improved from her first time speaking. “What are we going to be doing today? More puzzles or more learning? Have you brought anything new to read to me today?” 

 

Papyrus had nearly forgotten that she was eager to learn about everything, and in his haste this morning had forgotten the book he had borrowed from the library for her. She was a fast learner, taking up language and some reading in a short amount of time, though it had concerned him after meeting her that she knew not how to read or write. The fact that he had forgotten something so important to her made his soul twist sadly in his ribcage.

 

“No, not today,” he said, setting her back down on the floor, already missing the warm feeling in his soul from the lack of contact. “My father has us doing something different today, though he did not say exactly what that was. He left a note for me saying to take you to the testing facility, and that you would know where it is located.”

 

Her expression dropped from its happy smile, and Papyrus guessed that she didn’t like the testing facility all too much. He personally had never seen it, and had never been to one of the more scientific tests his father performed, but they couldn’t all be bad. She nodded, still seeming upset with this turn of events, and looked down at her feet, shifting from side to side. The young skeleton tipped his head to the side, concerned for what could have made her so opposed to going to testing. 

 

_ Is it really  _ **_that_ ** _ bad for her to do a few tests that she would be acting like this? _

 

Despite her reluctance, he took her hand and she led him out of the cell and down the hall towards the specified location. The pair walked in silence for a few minutes, before the human stopped in the middle of the hallway, her face holding an unpleasant mix of emotions. Papyrus halted next to her, wondering why she had stopped in the first place, but gave her space to speak first. She shuffled her bare feet quietly on the smooth tile, not making eye contact with him.

 

“Papyrus… I’m scared,” she said, her voice weak and quavering. Papyrus looked at her in confusion, but after waiting for her to speak and receiving nothing, he decided to ask her what he was thinking.

 

“Are the tests that bad? I am certain that my father wouldn’t do anything that would harm you in any great capacity. He should not, after all. If he is treating you poorly, then-” The human shook her head before he could finish, her face clouding over with fear and sorrow, something that worried the tall skeleton.

 

“No, it’s not the tests on their own, but they remind me of…  _ certain things _ , things that happened when I was still up there.”

 

Papyrus could only assume that “up there” meant the Surface and whatever horrible things had happened to scar her body and her mind before she had fallen into the Underground. He pulled her into another hug, hoping that it would calm her fears, even if only a little bit. She leaned into the hug, and for a moment, he swore he could feel the fears and agonies of her soul pulsing through his before a calming peace washed over them both. Papyrus lingered a moment more, then set her back down again.

 

“Worry not,” he said, doing his best to reassure her. “I do not think that my father would be doing something such as whatever happened to you on the Surface. And even if he were to try it, you have nothing to fear! I, the Great Papyrus, shall protect you from every harm!” 

 

She smiled at him and took his hand again, leading him back down the hallway again towards their destination. After a few minutes more of walking, they came to a room with an open door, and Gaster inside. Papyrus took a look around the room as the human released his hand and walked over to a chair as though she had done this routine before.

 

The room was small, not much bigger than the human’s cell, which wasn’t really saying too much. Immediately in front of the door, just a few paces in, was a computer panel of some sort with buttons and screens. Several lines of what appeared to be code were going past quickly on a few screens, disappearing before Papyrus had a chance to read them. Just a few feet past the panel was the chair the human was currently sitting on, and Gaster was strapping them down across their chest, legs, one of her arms, and forehead.

 

_ Odd, why in Asgore’s name would he need to strap her into that chair? Shouldn’t she be able to just sit down in it normally? _ Papyrus left his thoughts unspoken, trusting that Gaster knew what he was doing would be safe, though he felt a little uneasy about seeing her pinned to the spot. She seemed to be uncomfortable as well, and shifted as best as she could, sending a weak smile to him.

 

“Welcome,” Gaster said, finally turning to greet his son with a warm smile. “I do hope you are ready to assist me with testing today, Papyrus. This is the first actual test you have seen with the human, is it not?” 

 

“Yes, what is it exactly we are doing at the moment?” Papyrus asked, moving toward his father after stepping around the panel. Gaster was taking some odd looking contraption on a wheeling stand and moved it over to hover above the human’s head. It was metal, and shaped almost like a ball, though it had four hooks on the end of some wires on either side of it. The inside of the contraption looked like it was almost a mirror, and had a distorted image of the human in the metal’s surface. 

 

“Well, this device here allows for me to view the human’s soul without removing it from the body,” his father explained as he took the hooks and set them into either side of the human’s mouth. “With this, I can view any changes in the soul when the body is exposed to various stimuli, if I could just get it at the right angle….”

 

Papyrus stopped listening to his father’s rambling for just a moment to look at the human’s face. She looked utterly panicked, her mouth pulled in four odd directions in an uncomfortable way, and for whatever reason he got the feeling that his father had not been truthful in his statement about the device, though nothing in his mannerisms or voice suggested otherwise. Gaster hummed in displeasure, as though something were wrong, and he went over to the panel, stepping over the wires attaching the machine to the panel. Reluctantly, Papyrus went over to his father’s side.

 

“It isn’t functioning properly, perhaps I need to adjust the tension just a little more,” the elder skeleton said. He pressed a few buttons and the machine whirred softly across from the two, a winding mechanism pulling the two wires on either end. As a result, the human’s mouth was being pulled as well, and she let out a stained sound of discomfort. Papyrus felt his soul lurch in his ribcage, and he turned away from the human to speak to his father.

 

“Dad, I do not think this is a good idea, she is very clearly in pain,” he said, his voice pleading. “I think you may be hurting her more than anything else, and there is no sign of seeing her soul. Maybe we can turn off the machine and try it again later?”

 

“Nonsense, Papyrus,” Gaster responded, his focus on the buttons and screens despite the growing whimpers of the human. “It will work, and you’ll see it firsthand! I just think that there might need to be a slight adjustment and-”

 

Gaster was cut off by the human screaming, and both skeletons whipped their heads around to look at her. Her free hand was scrabbling at her face frantically, clawing at the left side, furthest away from them. Papyrus felt his soul tighten painfully in fear in his ribcage and he sprung over the panel to rush over to her side. His father went around instead, but was right behind him to assess the situation.

 

Papyrus noticed immediately how her green eyes were filled with tears, and she was unable to make any coherent sounds. He looked at her cheek to see that the hooks that were on the left side of her face had torn her cheek open, and blood was spilling everywhere. Panic raced through his soul, and he carefully pulled the hooks away, even though she screamed more when he moved it. Every single scream that left her throat caused his soul to twist more and more, a physical pain searing his body. Finally, he pulled it loose, and he took out the other hooks just to be safe.

 

Despite the immediate source of pain being removed, she was still spilling blood, and a lot of it, onto her arm, the chair, Papyrus, and anything near it. Her mouth was brimming with the blood, and she appeared to be choking on the dark liquid. Papyrus could feel her soul calling out to him and instinctively he responded, his hands quickly coming up to cup her face with green healing magic glowing brightly on his palms. The human was still panicking, her breathing shallow as she sputtered out the blood, though now she gripped Papyrus’ wrists tightly instead of scratching at her face. 

 

Papyrus reached out to her with his soul, doing his best to try and calm her with a wave of soothing energy. The human responded well to his calming tactic, her eyes almost glassy as she relaxed slightly in the chair. She was still shaking like a leaf but with a good reason to, the blood that had pooled in her mouth now dripping down her chin. The young skeleton took a moment to look at how his healing magic was doing on her injury, ignoring the fact that he had never done something this large all at once.

 

The ragged tear on her face had ripped through the delicate flesh, but now he watched as it stitched itself together, the wound closing as though it had never even happened. Not even a scar appeared on her pale skin as he concentrated, focusing on finishing the healing process. Within seconds, her face was whole again without a single trace, save for the blood still all over her chin, that she had ever been hurt. Her hands, still clutching at his wrists, loosened their hold, trembling as she slowly released her death-grip.

 

Papyrus took a moment to catch his breath, surprised that he didn’t even feel exhausted from exerting so much magic into healing. Then he hastily pulled all of the straps off of the human’s body, wanting them to be free of it all. The moment she was free of the straps holding her down, he pulled her into a tight hug, sending as much calming energy from his soul into hers as he could. He didn’t even stop to question how he knew how to do that, but instead focused on comforting her as her tears fell onto his neck and scarf.

 

He had to protect her, and he knew it in his soul.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Gaster's machine cuts open the human's face on her left side with deep cuts and Papyrus heals her from it.   
> Sorry for so long of a wait with this chapter, but I've been crazy busy! I have also been trying to create several other projects all at once, and that hasn't really gone too well with trying to make posts. However, I am nearing the finish line in creating the story! I will be able to post more often once I get the whole thing done, and the next chapter should be up soon!
> 
> Next chapter: Looking Into the Past  
> Bother me on my Tumblr! [My blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)


	9. Looking Into the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaster takes a minute to reflect back on what he's seen before and why he's doing what he's doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor character death in this chapter, flashbacks and emotional suffering ahead. No major warnings for this one, but be careful in reading.

Gaster had been standing a little ways back from the pair, carefully observing Papyrus’ actions on the human. His son had only taken a half of a second to notice the problem, then acted immediately to solve it. He didn’t have to do a thing to help the human, Papyrus had done it all on his own. This was a little surprising, but Gaster was utterly delighted with these results.

 

While it was not in his plan to have the human injured so suddenly, nor so brutally, the overall effect was what he had desired. Papyrus had used his soul to respond to what the human needed most, not just his magic or whatever words he wanted to think of. He had used something much stronger and more intimate than just those things. A swell of pride rose in his ribcage and he fought to keep himself from smiling. 

 

_ Truly fascinating. Their souls have bonded deeper than I thought they would have already. I may be able to take things up to a higher level at this rate, and that can all be arranged nicely, but I will have to make this up to both the human and Papyrus for now. _

 

Gaster stepped forwards as he watched his son finish healing the human’s face, leaving no indication of a mark at all.  _ Impressive _ , he thought to himself. While all monsters had the ability to use varying types of magic, a natural talent for healing magic was rarer than most other types. Gaster himself had only seen one or two other monsters able to wield it, and one of those was him.

 

Papyrus had inherited this ability from him, obviously, but this was far stronger than anything he had seen his son do before. The most his son had been able to do prior to this event was healing small amounts of damage and barely setting broken bones and even that was arduous. Yet he didn’t even seem phased by this amount of magic expelled to completely undo a massive tear in the human’s flesh.

 

Before he could say anything to console either of them or apologize, Papyrus was hugging the human, and Gaster’s eye sockets widened in shock. It wasn’t an uncommon sight to see the pair hugging, in fact it was often a several-times-a-day occurrence. Both of them were very comfortable with physical contact after all the time they ended up together at the lab. This time however, the scientist could see a physical change in the both of their souls.

 

Papyrus’ soul was gleaming from under the fabric of his shirt, bright enough that Gaster could see a fairly clear outline of the upside-down heart shape resting in his son’s ribcage. Monsters never showed their souls, if they could help it, while humans were more of an almost literal heart-on-the-sleeve sort. 

 

All monsters were careful to conceal their souls as it was deemed intimate and extremely vulnerable to expose it during any situation. Now both his son’s soul and the human’s were gleaming, the white and golden glows blending together, each almost reaching for the other. It was a raw moment, with a level of trust and vulnerability to each other that he, even as Papyrus’ father, had never seen him do before.

 

Gaster subconsciously summoned his magic hands and had them begin to write notes furiously on a clipboard he had brought with him. This experiment was much more profitable in terms of results than he had anticipated, and it thrilled him. The human, as much of an anomaly as he had seen, was presenting him with a multitude of things to begin looking into. He needed to take blood samples, soul samples if he could get them, and he had to have Papyrus around for a few of these tests of course. The bond between these two was beginning to blossom into something amazing, and they seemed to have begun soul bonding in small amounts.

 

As Gaster watched, Papyrus suddenly pulled his head up to glare at his father, which shocked him. With the easy-going, gentle nature of his son’s soul, it was rare to see him truly upset about something, but he knew the face of utter rage when he saw it. Papyrus was beyond anger, past fury, and into full blown  _ rage  _ over this incident. Another thing for him to study, with the sudden change of emotional state of his son, and he had his magic hands write down a note to look at later.

 

“You managed to hurt her so badly that she was  _ bleeding _ everywhere, and you are just standing there  _ taking notes? _ ” Papyrus’ voice was low, probably from frustration and a suppression of his emotions as to not startle the panicked human he was still embracing. “I… I cannot believe this! You made something that was going to hurt her and ignored her wanting you to stop?  _ How could you?? _ ”

 

Papyrus let go of the human, who was still snivelling pitifully in the chair, curling in on itself, and moved to stand intimidatingly over his father. While Gaster certainly wasn’t scared that Papyrus would do something to intentionally harm him, he was a little worried that the emotions pulsing through his son’s soul would make him more volatile and impulsive. 

 

The young skeleton brought his hands up, a faint quiver running through them, and gripped his father’s shoulders tightly, wrinkling up the lab coat. Papyrus seemed to falter in what he wanted to do, the conflicting thoughts in his skull flickering across his facial bones rapidly. Gaster said nothing, indicated nothing, and simply waited to see what his son’s reaction to the whole situation would be.

 

Finally, Papyrus pulled his hands away from his father with an exasperated sound, almost as if he had to force himself to do so, and turned back to the human. After sending another harsh glare over his shoulder to Gaster, he scooped up the human with ease, his arms under her shoulder blades and her knees. The human seemed to not protest the actions of his son, though it clung tightly to his clothing for support as he lifted it up. Papyrus pulled the human close to his ribcage, his soul still glowing strongly under his shirt, though it had dimmed slightly, and walked out of the testing room. 

 

Gaster stood in the room for a few minutes longer, his soul humming with a fierce intensity to process what happened. He almost wanted to laugh at this predicament, though at the same time he could also scream in frustration. Slowly, he moved away from the working booth he was supposed to use to monitor the human, putting his skull into his hands.

 

They had bonded together so rapidly that they had made progress in leaps and bounds where he wanted to, but another dilemma had arisen. There was a heavy nature of protectiveness that had come over Papyrus that he hadn’t anticipated at this rate. He wanted to keep his soulmate safe, though he most likely hadn’t realized what was happening to him yet.

 

Gaster had felt the same way before, oh so long ago when he had his own soulmate still by his side. He sat down on the clean side of the bloodied chair the human had been in only moments ago, his holed hands gradually moving to rub his face. Seeing this bond happening to his youngest son was special to him, but it was also more painful than he had expected it to be.

 

_ Arial _ . Even the thought of her name made his soul squeeze uncomfortably in his ribcage, and he fought to keep his breathing steady. It was all the way back when Papyrus was still a babybones that she had been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sans had been just barely old enough to understand, but it still caused him heartache when it occurred, though he may not remember now. Gaster on the other hand could still see it as though it had happened just an hour ago.

 

Arial used to traverse through the forest surrounding Snowdin often, claiming that the cold air was therapeutic to her mental state. Stress from working in the lab got to her a lot easier than it did for Gaster, and especially after having Sans, then Papyrus shortly after, she was in need of something to relax herself. When she had been out, a human had fallen, and it wasn’t long until she had encountered them on the snowy trail. 

 

Gaster was at the house at the time, trying to get Sans into a pair of shorts the proper way when he had felt as though his soul were tearing in half. He had collapsed, calling out for Arial as he knew that she was out in the forest. Against his better judgement to leave the boys on their own in the house, especially at such young ages, he raced out of the house, closing the door hurriedly and ran as fast as he could to go and try to save her. His mind was racing, whirling with the possibilities for this encounter. Arial was fighting for her life, he could feel that in his soul, but she was never much of a fighter to begin with. 

 

_Arial, please just hang in there until I can make it. Stay determined, for Sans, for Papyrus, for me! You can’t give up! Our sons need you,_ ** _I_** _need you!! Please, please, please don’t give up, stay strong!_

 

Gaster finally made it to where he felt his soul calling out to him, twisting into a painful knots at the sight that greeted him. Arial had her back to him, her orange magic curling around her phalanges, but he could see that she was trembling. She hated fighting, and he knew that. She turned to look at him, bright orange tears leaking from her eye sockets and down her cheekbones. As she turned, a white hot explosive pain seared through his soul, and the world around him slowed down to painful seconds. 

 

He lunged forwards, watching himself reach out to her, wanting to take anything he could with him just to get her to safety. He had been too late, as a large slash oozed blood across her chest, and her face was dropped into a look of shocked agony. His phalanges gripped at her bright red scarf as she dusted, her soul hovering for a moment in front of him before it cracked. In his ribcage, it felt as though his own soul was cracking as he watched the soul fragment into tiny pieces, vanishing into nothingness as her body’s dust rested upon the snow. Pure torment flooded his entire being, and it felt as though he would dust and explode all at once.

 

The human didn’t know what had even hit them when he snapped. He summoned blaster after blaster, threw every bit of magic he had in his body at them, beastial cries of agony tearing from his throat. When he had finally stopped attacking, he collapsed into the snow, his hands coming to rest on either side of his soulmate’s dust. Tears welled into his eye sockets, starting first with a drip, then falling like the rain in Waterfall, staining the dust a pale purple. He was choking on air, all his emotions pouring out of him in a tidal wave, threatening to overtake him.

 

His magic was spent and most likely damaged from how much he had used, but he used what little he had left to collect Arial’s dust into a small pile that he collected carefully into a pouch torn off of the end of his shirt. He also stopped to collect the human’s soul while he was at it, a bitter grimace over his skull as he forced himself to not destroy it as well. No need to condemn the entirety of the Underground for years more just because he was upset.

 

Gaster took his time to return home, knowing that he would have to face his two young sons who no longer had a mother. There was nothing that he could explain to them yet that would make them understand why their mother was never coming back home. What was worse, he had to face a home without the other half of his soul being there, a presence which hadn’t been absent for several years. 

 

No more nights dancing quietly in the kitchen, hoping not to wake the boys, no more teasing each other in the lab, no more singing or reading to the boys to get them to sleep easier. No more deep discussions about the Surface, no more pleasant days strolling through the forest, no more beautiful mornings where sunlight was on her face. No more taking the boys to Waterfall to watch them splash around in puddles, no more quiet evenings sitting together in bed reading, no more working on projects to save the Underground or make life better. No more gentle smiles, no more bell-toned laughter, no more  **_Arial_ ** . 

 

Gaster lifted his head from his hands, letting a sigh fall from his teeth exhaustedly, and his soul twisted again. Arial… She would have been so proud to see the way that their two sons had grown up, and now that Papyrus had found his soulmate she would have been ecstatic. 

 

He almost hoped for a moment that she could see them, and what she would think of the things he was doing to try to help the Underground. In a way, he was also trying to soothe his own tormented soul into healing. But he had to get a hold on his emotions to ensure that he could finally making the appropriate way out of here.

 

He stood from the chair, wiping the purple tear tracks off of his cheekbones, and he turned to head back toward the cell the human was kept in. The skeleton hadn’t even really known he had been crying until he had brought himself out of the trip down memory lane, but it wasn’t that important anyway. Gaster picked up the clipboard with his notes, his handwriting scribbled all over the pages in a hasty manner. He would have to examine them later for what he had been thinking earlier, his own emotional state was about as volatile as he had worried Papyrus’ had been. 

 

As he wandered back down the hall, he took a moment to wonder how long he had been thinking about Arial and that awful day. He hadn’t checked the time before he had begun to remember the past, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to. It was tiring enough to even take a look at her urn in his bedroom, nevermind taking the time to relive the pain of losing his soulmate. There was nothing worse than taking too much time for his own personal grief when he could be using that same time working on solutions.

 

Gaster stopped momentarily, something in his skull telling him that there was some important occurrence happening while he had been lost in his thoughts. Something he was missing that was happening now, but he couldn’t bring himself to go past the cell the human stayed in just yet. 

 

He would check on the monitor later, the cameras did have a recording function for at least seventy two hours without him going in to save any feed. Instead, he took an alternative route that was at least ten minutes longer at the pace he was going, though he was grateful that it gave him time to compose himself. 

 

If Papyrus was coming back up to the office to rant at him, like Gaster assumed he would, then he would need to be calm enough to keep up his facade of the cool scientist, the level-headed one in the room. He had gotten very good at that after Arial’s passing, much to his own distaste. Another sigh passed through his teeth and he finally arrived in his office, sinking into his chair wearily. Gaster could possibly use this experience to heal, but at the moment he had to deal with his son’s current state as well. He had a long few hours ahead of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is going to contain some time with the human and Papyrus! No warnings ahead of this one but there is some fluff coming up.  
> Come bother me on Tumblr! [My blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)


	10. Making Headway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus spends some time with the human, and some crucial things happen.

Papyrus carried the human back towards her little cell room with a huff passing through his teeth. It wasn’t that she was heavy, he was rather strong and could handle these sorts of things anyways, but rather that he was flustered, upset, and confused all at once. He couldn’t wrap his skull around any of what had just transpired, despite having thought about it the whole way back.

 

His father had been there with him in the room and his machine had  _ hurt _ the human he was trying to perform tests on. Yet while Papyrus sprang into action, he had done absolutely nothing but take notes. Worst of all, he seemed to have enjoyed looking at the whole thing as the human was in pain and being healed. It was utterly vexing, and Papyrus couldn’t help but rattle his bones out of annoyance as he practically stomped into the room with the human curled up in his arms.

 

He had taken great pains to make the space more comforting and welcoming that it had been initially. The bed now had a more colorful, bright orange and red blanket, one that he had taken from his own room to give to the human, and the walls were covered in papers full of drawings and scribbles. The first few he had seen were nearly in all black, frantically drawn, and then torn to shreds, the pieces hidden underneath other drawings over time. It was concerning, to say the least, but now more drawings were in color, and the quality was improving greatly.

 

Papyrus walked over to the bed and set the human down on it, having to bend more than past his waist just to get close enough to be gentle about it. She was still so scared, her breathing short and tears streaming down her face with one hand still clutching at what had been the injured side. Papyrus’ soul twisted in pain for her and he moved to get something to clean her face of blood when a tugging on his sleeve stopped him.

 

The human’s hand was twined into the fabric of his scarf, gripping it tightly, her green eyes staring up at him, pleading. She let out a whine, begging him without words to stay there with her, and Papyrus quickly obliged, sitting cross-legged next to her bed. Immediately, she turned to face him, burying her face into the soft fabric of his red scarf. She would be getting blood all over him, but he was already bloodied enough from earlier, and clothing could easily be washed anyway.

 

With a sigh, he leaned against the edge of the bed, stroking her hair gently as she cried whatever tears she had left from the event. Papyrus took a moment to note that her dark brown hair was getting longer, growing out of the choppy state he had first seen it in and the longest strands were nearly touching her shoulders now. It almost looked good, but there were still a lot of pieces that seemed much shorter than others. He wondered what had happened up on the surface to have gotten her to this point in her life that she was at.

 

She didn’t even have a name, from what he knew, as every time he had asked, she had never said anything in response. All that followed was a blank stare, confusion, then a shrug as if she didn’t know. To Papyrus, it was utterly impossible to forget one’s own name, so it only took a few logical steps to conclude that she had never received one. Ever since he had figured it out, he had been racking over his skull to find something that would fit to her.

 

“Human,” he started off quietly, not wanting to break the attempted aura of peace he was trying to get her to feel. “I… I have been thinking about some things. You do not have a name, do you?” 

 

The pitiful, teary-eyed look she gave him was more than enough for an answer, and his soul twisted painfully in his ribcage. He almost regretted asking the question, but he had wanted to confirm it with her so that she wouldn’t be upset. Papyrus cleared his non-existent throat, trying to keep himself collected long enough to speak what he wanted.

 

“Would you, erm, be at all opposed if I… If I decided to give you a name?” he asked tentatively, watching her expression as best as he could. “Only if you want me to, of course! I will not force that upon you. But I feel as though you are going to need a name, I cannot keep calling you “human” the entire time I know you.”

 

Her head shot up off of his scarf, and he was fairly certain that the top of her head almost clipped the underside of his mandible. She looked at him with wide green eyes, though they were a bit bloodshot from all the crying she had been doing. Her mouth opened, then closed, then opened again, seemingly uncertain of how to respond.

 

“P-Papyrus, I…,” she said, her voice a little shaky. “That’s… that’s the nicest thing that anyone would have ever done for me.” With that, her face broke into a smile and she began to cry again. Papyrus almost panicked but he felt in his soul that she was no longer scared or hurting, but her soul was happy instead. 

 

“Well, in that case, I would be most honored to bestow you a name!” he said with a wide smile, mimicking the human’s own. “Let me see, I have a few that we could try at first, and see how you like them? Does that sound fair to you?”

 

“Yes, please, tell me what you have,” she responded, wiping away her tears and looking at him eagerly. Papyrus felt his soul thump in his chest, which surprised him. It hadn’t done that in quite some time since he had been with the human, though this time it felt warm and light, not the painful, pleading ones that had been there before.

 

“Rasa?” The human pondered this choice, but from the way her nose scrunched up at the suggestion, he could tell she wasn’t a fan. Sure enough, she shook her head with a dissatisfied hum. Papyrus was quick with another suggestion.

 

“Verdana?” Another shake of the head. Papyrus frowned a little to himself, though he covered it up with a hand as if he were thinking instead. He had been particularly fond of that name, but if she was not a fan, then there was no point in calling her something she hated.

 

“Suranna?” She thought about that one for a little bit longer this time, but still turned it down like the two before.

 

“Katibeh?” A smile crept its way back up her face, and she shook her head again. At this point Papyrus was starting to get a bit stumped, because he had been sure she would have liked the first one or two, and the others were merely backups. 

 

“Nokora?” She seemed to like that one more, and he tucked it away for later in his skull, just in case she didn’t like anything else he offered. Still, she wanted him to keep going with his suggestions.

 

“Enriqueta?” At this one, her smile widened and she covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking a bit. She dipped her head down, almost hiding her face from him. Papyrus tipped his head in confusion, about to ask what the matter was before he heard it. Laughter….

 

She was  _ laughing _ . 

 

He had never even heard her laugh before, not in any of the time he had known her. She had only begun smiling about two months after they had met, and even then it had taken a long time for her to get to full blown smiles. Her laugh, though quiet and suppressed, was light and soft like a breath of air passing through. Part of him imagined with a touch of sadness that she probably hadn’t laughed much on the Surface either, but his soul hummed with delight that she was laughing now.

 

“Those all sound so fancy!” she cried out after she had gotten a handle on her laughter, toning it down into even softer giggles. “Do you have any other names that don’t quite sound like they should be for a princess? Something that would be more fitting of… of….”   
  


Her voice trailed off suddenly, and her expression dropped down from its smile into something much more serious. Papyrus watched as her eyes clouded over with memories, which he had seen happen with her time and time again. It was never pleasant, from what he could take, but lately it had been somewhat better with the painful memories being less frequent in his company. 

 

“More fitting of someone like me….” The way that the words were barely spoken at all, just a hair above being an exhaled breath, made it so that Papyrus wasn’t sure of what he was hearing. The human suddenly looked very sad, and she was staring down into her lap, playing with her fingers absently. The skeleton took one of her hands, and she looked up at him with her sorrowful green eyes, though she kept looking away.

 

“You say that as though you do not like yourself, or that someone has told you you are not worth anything,” he stated rather bluntly, and she gave no protest to his words. “In that case, I must say this. You are wrong about yourself.” It looked like she was going to try and say something to him, but he held up his hand to stop her gently. In response, she cast her gaze off to the side, which only fueled Papyrus’ need to change her mind about herself.

 

“Whoever has been telling you that you are unimportant, mean nothing, or has been saying you are less than average, they are wrong!” He said, gently taking a hold of her shoulders to try and get her to look at him. “And if they have convinced you of that as well, then you are wrong too! You are more than those nasty things they have said, whatever it may have been.” She still didn’t seem too convinced by his words, so Papyrus continued, twisting slightly to look at her, even though she wasn’t looking at him.

 

“I have seen you, who you are, and all I see is the kindest, gentlest, most amazing person to have ever come into the Underground. I don’t even know any monsters that are like you, that’s how special you are. You are  _ special _ and do not ever forget that about yourself! There is  _ no one _ like  _ you _ , Averia.” 

 

She stiffened at his last sentence, her head swinging around to look at him directly in his eye sockets. It took him a moment, but he realized that he had just said another name suggestion without thinking about it, as though he had already decided what it was. Flustered, he began to take back what he said, hoping that she wasn’t upset at his actions.

 

“... Say it again, Papyrus?” she asked, her voice holding a slight quiver. The look on her face was difficult to interpret, and could mean anything, which did nothing for his sudden nervousness about his little slip up.

 

“Averia?” he said, almost uncertainly. The human looked down into her lap and muttered the name a few more times. Then she looked up and practically beamed at him with her brightest smile stretching her face wider than he had seen. His soul thumped pleasantly in his chest again, and he could feel magic rising in the form of a blush onto his cheekbones at the beautiful smile she was giving him.

 

“I like it... Averia! That is… that is my name now, Averia! I… I have a  _ name _ !!” She gave a little shout of joy and flung her arms around Papyrus’s cervical vertebrae in a hug, her cheek pressed up against the side of his skull. Papyrus could feel her soul humming with joy, and his own soul beginning to respond as he hugged her back tightly. In fact, it almost felt as though their souls were beginning to hum in the same frequency as each other….

 

Papyrus jolted as a sudden shiver ran through his soul, making him pull away from Averia quickly, and she pulled away as well. Both looked at each other in shock, then down at where their souls should have been resting. He could see his own white soul floating just in front of his ribcage, barely past the fabric of the shirt he was wearing, and Averia’s golden soul was the same way in front of her chest. Had they..?

 

The blush that had been on Papyrus’ cheekbones earlier tripled in intensity, and he was certain that his entire skull would be orange by now. Averia simply looked confused, though he noticed a small pink blush coloring her cheeks as well. For a minute, it was silent as both tried to figure out what had just happened to their souls, to  _ them _ . Papyrus was the first to speak up, attempting to clear the air.

 

“W-well, I suppose I had better get back home at this point,” he stuttered, knowing full well that what had just transpired was something that was  **_not_ ** supposed to happen right away between two people, especially not on accident. “My brother will be worried about me, and I will have some words to exchange with my father about his behaviors from earlier. I will see you again tomorrow, as soon as I get out of training, and… and I will bring you the books you requested this time! The Great Papyrus will not fail!”

 

“Oh, o-okay then,” Averia said, smiling at him, though Papyrus felt as though his words were shaky and half thought through. He was panicking internally, worried that he had done something that would harm his reputation or his chances at the Royal Guard. He needed to talk to Sans, and maybe he would get some answers. He just hoped that if what he thought had actually happened had happened that Averia would forgive him for it. 

 

Hastily, he shoved his soul back inside his ribcage, having to nearly force it in as it was reluctant to do so for some reason. Averia’s soul soon disappeared as well, and she told him to say hi to Sans for her. Papyrus agreed, then turned and left as quickly as he could without appearing as though he was trying to run out of the room. The moment he was out of sight, he bolted down the hallway, heading home as fast as he could.

 

_ Sans, I really need your help this time, because I think I may have just done something that I really, _ **_really_ ** _ shouldn’t have…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I'm not dead guys. This chapter is way late, but I have been working on other things in the meanwhile and recently returned to this and realized how much I missed it! I hope I haven't been keeping you all in too much suspense!   
> Anyway, we finally get to hear the human's name! She's been unnamed up until this point, and now we can't say that anymore! This story can be labeled as a Reader-Insert of sorts, but I wanted to make sure that there was sufficient description, but this is the given name by Papyrus, the human's real name could be literally anything, because it hasn't been revealed.
> 
> No warnings for the next chapter, but it should be up soon!
> 
> Come bother me on [my blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart) on Tumblr, where I write character headcanons and small drabbles!


	11. Talking It Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Papyrus talk about what happened at the labs.

Sans was sitting comfortably on the faded green couch, listening to the clock on the wall tick in a droning fashion. It had been so quiet around the house lately with both Papyrus and his dad doing stuff all day, and he was fairly certain that he had at least an hour before the two of them got home. Days like these were the best ones, where he could laze about all day and no one would nag him about it.

 

He was nearly asleep when the front door to the house slammed open, startling him enough to send him tumbling to the floor. Muffled curses tumbled from his teeth as his nasal bone smacked roughly into the carpeted floor. Sans pushed himself halfway off the ground, clutching the bruised bone, when his feet went flying into the air.

 

A panicked, yet familiar voice reached out to him, and suddenly he was being carried upstairs at a breakneck pace. Sans vaguely registered that he was being brought into in Papyrus’ room before he was placed on his brother’s racecar bed and the door was slammed closed behind him. The tired skeleton took the opportunity to wipe the sleep from his eye sockets and looked up to see his younger brother standing at the door.

 

Papyrus’ scarf was disheveled and almost falling off of his body, his clothing looked almost like he had tripped in Waterfall as it was soaked, and he looked as though someone had covered his face in bright orange paint. Sans began to chuckle, wondering what had gotten his little bro all worked up. He leaned forwards a little, fighting back a yawn before he tipped his head to the side, a relaxed grin on his face.

 

“What’s the matter, Paps?” he asked jovially. “Did someone manage to  _ rattle your bones _ at the lab or somethin’?” Papyrus stiffened at the pun, but the expression of nervous tension never left his face. Sans took note of his brother’s minimal change, and decided to try again, hoping that whatever had happened wasn’t that bad.

 

“Aw, c’mon bro, I thought that one was a real  _ rib-tickler _ .  _ Tibia  _ honest, I could  _ patella _ that one again all day!” Sans laughed at his own puns, not noticing that his brother had barely responded to them at all. Papyrus instead shifted uncomfortably by his bedroom door, lost in his own thoughts on how to possibly bring up what he had done without feeling crude. 

 

He was almost completely certain that his soul had brushed up against the human’s own, and while he was not well versed in any affairs of love, he knew that it was terribly intimate for two souls to be in direct contact. Hence his blushing and fidgeting at his door, because he felt awful for doing that to Averia without her knowing what it meant, without any restraint! Papyrus was beyond ashamed at this point; he was completely mortified with himself. His soul had been acting so erratically as of late, and it was his fault that he couldn’t control himself.

 

Sans finally stopped laughing as he noticed the lack of response from his brother, and he felt his soul hum with concern. He stood up from his brother’s bed and made his way over carefully to him. Papyrus would have to be thinking pretty hard about something or extremely upset to not react at all to not one, but  _ four _ puns. His hand started to reach out to Papyrus’ own, though he hesitated, off put by his brother’s sudden quietness.

 

“Bro? Are you o-”

 

“Sans, I have made a horrible mistake!!” Papyrus cried out, clutching at the sides of his skull in hopes of finding some reprieve from his woe. “I-I don’t even know what I was thinking, I was just trying to help Averia a-and make her feel better when it began acting all on its own! It was horribly impolite and I should have been more careful, but she was so sad and I just wanted to cheer her up!”

 

The words came rushing out of Papyrus’ teeth like a dam had been broken and all the water was gushing forth. Sans actually took a step back as Papyrus began to gesticulate wildly, his orange blush only intensifying with his words. It was  _ definitely _ a concern to the shorter skeleton, because he had never seen his taller brother this upset over anything before.

 

“She was scared, I could feel it in my soul, and before I knew it I was holding her, and healing her, and I couldn’t just stand there! And he was no help! I could have hit him I was so mad! Rrrghh!” Sans held up his hands, trying to placate his younger brother’s mood.

 

“Paps,  _ slow d _ -”

 

“And what was he even thinking with that contraption! It could have been worse, and she was so terrified afterwards that she needed me to help calm her down!”

 

“ _ Bro _ , I need you to-”   
  


“I don't even know how I did it, but she was bleeding and my soul reacted on its own! I was certain that there was something else that I could do, and it  _ seemed _ to help a little bit. Then when we went back to her room and she was still crying over it, it hurt me!”

 

“ _ Papyrus _ -”

 

“How did it even happen? I don’t understand it at all! We were just talking to each other calmly and all of a sudden our souls were-”   
  


“ **_PAPYRUS!_ ** ” Sans roared his brother’s name over the insistent rambling of the younger skeleton. Papyrus instantly snapped his jaw shut, looking at his brother in a sort of awe, though neither his blush nor his troubled expression had gone away. Sans rubbed the sides of his skull carefully and took his brother’s hand, leading him to sit down on the bed next to him.

 

“Start from the beginning, and talk  _ slowly _ or you’re just going to get yourself all worked up again,” Sans said calmly. “What happened at the lab to get you all flustered in here?” Papyrus shifted uncomfortably, and started off by going over the note at the lab and the short conversation with Averia when Sans stopped him.

 

“Woah, woah, wait a moment, Pap, who’s Averia?” Sans looked very confused, his hands held up in front of him, and Papyrus realized he had never actually said the human’s name before, as she hadn’t had one. Sans didn’t know she had a name now, and Papyrus was quick to fill in that gap for his brother.

 

“The human, that’s her name, Averia,” he said, hoping to get more off of his chest without being interrupted the next time. “Can I please continue telling you what I need to say before I explode with all of my anguish?” 

 

Papyrus didn’t much care for the twinkle in his brother’s eye-lights at what he had said, but when Sans made no attempt to speak further, he went on. He divulged the details of the room and the test, describing how it was terrifying Averia before they had even started. Sans grew concerned when he mentioned how he face had been roughly torn open by the machine, though Papyrus hastily moved on. 

 

Once he had recounted all of the details leading up to the strange occurrence with their souls, Papyrus stopped, unsure of how to continue the conversation. Intimate details about souls weren’t necessarily  _ unknown _ to monsters, but it certainly wasn’t a comfortable conversation to have. Fortunately, Sans stepped in with a few questions before he could linger on his dilemma.

 

“So Dad’s machine tore her face open, and he simply stood there and watched as you healed up the huma-, uh, Averia? That’s not okay,” Sans hummed in disapproval and he glared down at the floor. “So when’d you decide to give her a name?”

 

“W-well, after she had been healed and comforted properly, I decided that I needed to take her back to her room so that she could finish calming down,” Papyrus said, his blush beginning to return after having gone while explaining his father’s misdeeds. “Once I brought Averia back, I tried to talk about something else to make sure that she would be alright, and I told her that I had thought of a few names that might work for her. She didn’t like a lot of them, but she really liked Averia, and so I named her that.”

 

Sans’ grin took on a bit of a mischievous look as Papyrus was explaining, and the younger skeleton didn’t like it all that much. That kind of smile meant that his older brother was plotting to tease him or to make some sort of pun and this was a serious matter! 

 

“So you started getting attached to her so much that you gave her a name, huh?” Though Papyrus could hear the tease in Sans’ voice and knew that he didn’t really mean it, his soul fluttered in his ribcage at the statement. Almost as if it was true, but he still didn’t trust himself on that. His blush began to grow warmer on his cheekbones, sinking his face into his scarf, and he watched as Sans’ eyelights grew wide in shock.

 

“No way…,” Sans muttered quietly, sitting up to look at his younger brother in shock. “You actually like her, don’t you? And you said you wanted to capture humans and bring ‘em to the king so we can get out of the Underground!” 

 

That shocked Papyrus a little, and he missed the slightly bitter tone that his brother’s voice had taken, though he had to admit that he was relieved that Sans hadn’t seemed to take it into a manner of “liking” romantically. He spluttered for a moment, trying to justify his desires to be in the Royal Guard and to also having fondness for a human simultaneously. Sans gave a few short laughs at his expense, and Papyrus just huffed and folded his arms, waiting for him to stop.

 

“Ah, well,” Sans sighed, wiping a few blue tears away from his eye sockets. “Why were you coming in yelling about making a horrible mistake, anyway? Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been that bad, could it?” Sans’ expression dropped when he noticed that Papyrus was now looking down in shame into his own lap.

 

“Well, I-I can’t be certain about what happened, but I think that we… Well, we hugged each other out of happiness for Averia’s new name and… I think that….” Papyrus purposefully let his voice trail off into mumbles, sinking his orange coated skull further into the red of his scarf. Sans leaned in a little closer.

 

“You think that you what?” Sans asked, leaning in slightly as his brother mumbled the same thing again.”Y’know, normally  _ I’m _ the one who’s mumbling stuff, so it’s really weird to see you doing it. Now I see why Dad hates it when I mumble, because I can’t understand a word you were trying to say to me. If it’s that-”

 

“ **_I THINK OUR SOULS MAY HAVE TOUCHED!!!!_ ** ” Papyrus boomed before he grabbed a pillow from behind him and smashed it into his face, falling backwards onto his bed. Sans was stunned for a moment, both that his brother may have had that happen to him, and that he would actually  _ say  _ it aloud.

 

 He briefly considered laughing at it, as it was rather ridiculous to see Papyrus so flustered about it, but he held that impulse in. After all, souls were no laughing matter and if Averia had done something to Papyrus, there would be _ hell  _ to pay. Sans carefully weighed his options before he tried to speak, not really knowing which way to take the conversation.

 

“Pap,” he started uncertainly, patting his brother’s shoulder. “Did’ya do it on purpose? Like… I dunno, uh, talk about it beforehand?”

 

“No!!” Papyrus cried, ripping the pillow off of his face to reveal more orange blush. “We were just hugging together and all of a sudden I felt… I felt this odd sensation in my soul and when we pulled away both of our souls were out! I-I feel like I have done something that I was not supposed to, and I know that Averia doesn’t know about souls like that….”

 

Sans looked down at his little brother with concern as he covered his face once more, knowing that he would rather choose to be a complete gentleman. The way that it sounded to Sans, however, was that he was not in control of himself at the time, and his soul had made its own decision. He let a sigh pass between his teeth and he lay down next to Papyrus, folding his hands over his stomach.

 

“I feel as though my soul has become aware of whenever she’s around, and I can’t stop thinking about her, Sans,” Papyrus spoke up suddenly, his voice soft and shaking slightly. “She’s always in the back of my skull and I can’t stop myself from wondering how she is, even when I’m supposed to be doing something else. Averia’s soul has done something strange to me, and I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I can’t ask Dad for help!”

 

“Why not, Paps?” Sans asked, turning his skull to look at his brother. Normally Papyrus would be all too happy to bring up any worries with their father, as little as that was.  _ What could be so different about asking him this time?  _ Papyrus let out a groan, his gaze still on the ceiling above them.

 

“Because, Sans,” he barked. “This all is just an experiment to him, if anything I’ve seen from today is the case. He doesn’t care that something happened to me, he just wants to find out what makes Averia different from other humans. He doesn’t….” Papyrus’ voice trailed off into a half choked sob, and Sans felt his soul twist in sorrow for his brother.

 

“Papyrus, you’re as much his son as I am, of course he cares about you,” Sans said gently, sitting back up. “If it’ll make you feel better, I can talk to Dad about it for you, and let you know what he says, okay? This is not just an experiment, I know it.” Papyrus paused for a moment at his brother’s words, and then let out a sigh of his own.

 

“No, I need to be the one to ask him about it, otherwise I wouldn’t feel right about the whole thing. I can talk to him, but will you be there with me?” Sans felt his ever-present smile begin to widen at the simple request and he let out a small chuckle. He patted Papyrus on the shoulder again to try and reassure him.

 

“Of course, bro, I can do that for you. Besides, I know you have a  _ bone _ to pick with Dad at the moment. It’d be a complete  _ fibula _ to say otherwise, y’know?” Papyrus groaned and smacked Sans with the pillow in his hand lightly as his brother laughed at the terrible puns.

 

“You and your puns are going to be the death of me, Sans!” Papyrus cried, but even as he spoke, he began to chuckle. Sans smiled at his younger brother and patted his shoulder gently with the hand closest to him. He’d be okay, even if he thought there was something going on with him, Sans could feel it in his bones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know I vanished for a really long while, but I'm back and here's another chapter to prove it!! I made you all wait for a long time (though I don't know how many of you actually stuck around..)   
> Next chapter contains visual hallucinations, blood, mentions of abuse, and mild depictions violence. It is totally skippable as a chapter, and if any of these things end up being triggers for you, I highly suggest that you do not read this one.
> 
> Come bother me on [my blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)!!


	12. Fear From the Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Averia reflects back on recent events and old memories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter contains mentions of violence, blood, past abuse, trauma, and visual/sensory hallucinations. Reader discretion is advised, and a summary will be posted at the bottom. This chapter is OPTIONAL, so if you need to skip, you won't miss too much of the story's plot.

After that incident where Papyrus had so hastily left, Averia was sitting alone in her cell, like she did all the time. The electro-magic door was now programmed to open and close when one of the three skeletons came by to open it, and the scanner was no longer necessary. She was sitting in her locked cell, just waiting for something to happen again, which could be anywhere from a few hours to several days. Not that she had any means to keep track of the passing of time in here anyway.

 

She took a glance around the room she sat in, with all of the drawings and whatnot on the walls, hastily stuck to them in an attempt for something to be different. Papyrus had brought her things to color and puzzles to try shortly after he had first met her. His arms had been loaded with an assortment of items that Averia, quite frankly, had no idea what they were for or how to use them. 

 

Upon seeing her confusion, Papyrus provided a brief demonstration, proving himself to be a rather capable artist, and then offered her the supplies. To be quite honest, Averia had wanted nothing to do with the colorful things being put in front of her, but the gray of the metal walls was dull and boring. Anything would be a welcomed distraction from the emptiness that was crammed into such a small room.

 

The way that he had looked so proud of himself when she had gratefully accepted the sheets of blank paper and coloring pencils still made her smile a little when she thought about it. He had just lit up with joy when she’d taken them, even though Averia hadn’t made any smiles back at him at the time. It was a fond memory that she thought back to fairly often, just to warm her soul when she was feeling down.

 

Now, as she sat by herself, she was feeling as though her soul were shrinking down in her chest. It was almost always this way when she was in her little cell, spending night after night alone in the semi-darkness and nothing but her few books and coloring items to keep her company. The room got colder here too, the chill seeping in through the metallic flooring and walls in a way that she couldn’t keep out.

 

It got a lot lonelier once Papyrus’ bubbly and cheerful personality had disappeared from the cell, lonelier still when he had sentry duties or practices and couldn’t make it for several days at a time. The tall skeleton was her only friend in this tiny, metal cell. While she wasn’t necessarily a stranger to loneliness, Papyrus had been a welcome break from it, making the times he was gone all the more apparent.

 

Averia tucked her knees up to her chest, the uncomfortable fabric of the lab dress scratching at her skin lightly, having changed after bleeding all over the clothes she had been wearing before. She had been wearing the same three dresses for however long she had been in here before Papyrus had brought her some things from their home. Averia’s fingers traced over her bare arms carefully, the skin colder now that she had nothing to trap the warmth on her body. 

 

He had absolutely insisted that Averia needed to wear something warmer than the thin fabric of the lab dress to keep warm in the cell. The metal lining the cell provided little heat, and while skeletons were not susceptible to cold temperatures, she most definitely was. She was grateful for the heat it provided her, and the slight comfort of a scent that felt so much less clinical and sterile than the room she was in. She didn’t even have that to comfort her now, just the itchy material of the old dress.

 

Her mind wandered back to the incident right before she had been brought back here by Papyrus. It had been utterly terrifying to feel the machine pulling at her mouth, stretching the surrounding skin wider and wider. Had she not been so hyper aware in that moment, she would have missed that the two hooks in her left cheek had been sharpened. 

 

It seemed as though that design choice was deliberate, intending to do something that had no good feelings behind it. That hooks had begun to cut into her mouth the moment the scientist had placed them on her, and she knew that it was bad. She had said nothing at the time, and even if she wanted to, the pulling of her mouth prevented her from actually saying anything that would be coherent.

 

When the machine had fully ripped through her skin, it had been a blinding pain, searing hot and all of her severed nerves began to scream. An equally pained scream tore itself from her throat without her thinking about it. Her hand, which hadn’t been strapped down that day for some odd reason, had flown to her face of their own accord, struggling to get the bladed hook out of her mouth. This only served to agitate the wound further and Averia distinctly recalled that her mouth filled up with blood quickly. 

 

She had done her best to spit it out, but her mouth being forced open was making it difficult, and she was unable to clear her throat of the hot liquid. It was hard enough to deal with the white hot pain tearing through her face, but to add choking into the mix was even more taxing. Even though it was only a few moments, it was an eternity with her lungs being unable to function in the way they needed to.

 

_ This is it, this is how I die _ , she had thought.  _ A shameful way to go, to choke on one’s own blood in a lab for testing, without freedom, without hope. _ Averia’s mind began to shut down all rational thoughts, and she could only think about her impending death as her body cried for air. Once she had been panicking, it was only a second later that a foreign feeling of warmth covered her face and the nerves began to stop flaring in pain. 

 

Papyrus was standing over her and his hands were cupping her face, simultaneously healing her wound and providing her with gentle waves of comfort. Averia hadn’t even realized she was crying until she felt the salty drops pooling around his phalanges pressing into her cheeks carefully. His gaze was locked onto her, a look that she didn’t know how to quite describe in his sockets.

 

With his hands on her face, it had felt almost like Papyrus’ soul was reaching out to hers, though she knew very little about souls. The healing was so soothing, Averia could have gotten lost in the feeling of it for ages. She found herself tilting her head into the feeling of his bones as her soul hummed quietly with his own. Even though she was panicking at what was happening to her, the feeling was oddly comforting amidst her fear.

 

The rest of what had happened was speaking directly into her soul, especially when they had that odd event with their souls both being out. Averia had felt a strange jolt pass through her whole body, but most specifically her soul. It was unfamiliar but not altogether too uncomfortable, though she couldn’t really take the time to figure it out, because it had been withdrawn so quickly. Averia wasn’t so sure she trusted that feeling yet.

 

With all that had happened in the time she had been here, though she didn’t know how long she had really been here for a lack of time pieces, Averia was unable to discern how she should feel about her surroundings. She knew that it was infinitely better than the circumstances back on the Surface, as Papyrus called it, but the tests had been uncomfortable on many levels. Much of what happened there was torturous, and just the thought of it now was making her scared all over again.

 

Averia closed her green eyes tightly, hoping that she was able to shut out the painful memories without having a panic episode. However, she heard the voices from the Surface mumbling things, though she hadn’t understood it at the time, screaming at her for things she had done. Her hands clamped over her ears, a whine escaping her throat, but despite her attempts to block the memories, she still could feel what had happened over so many years time all over again.

 

_ A smoking gray and white stick being ground into her skin, again and again, leaving circular black and gray marks on her back and shoulders. A rancid stench of burning flesh filling her nostrils as she fought not to scream, failing miserably and earning a slap across her face. _

 

_ Jagged, broken green and brown bottles being flung at her head and dug into the flesh of her stomach. The sting of the strange amber fluid as it dripped into the oozing cuts like liquid fire. Shards of glass biting into the skin on her arms and legs, accompanied by more of the stinging of the foul smelling liquid laying in puddles around her. _

 

_ Hands, fat and fleshy, wrapped around her throat, squeezing it so hard that she saw spots and stars. Sweet air rushing into her lungs as they released her, but another round of squeezing shortly after, a deep voice saying things she didn’t understand. _

 

_ Fists rained down on her into her stomach and on her face, leaving painful bruises that appeared in sickening colors on her skin. More blows hitting her harder as she tried to protest and protect herself from the attacks on her body from every angle. Incoherent shrieking assaulting her eardrums as she was being beaten down into the floorboards.  _

 

_ Two sets of hands pinning her flat on her back as a heavy, metallic object was lifted above someone else’s head, then swung down towards her leg. An intense shattering feeling that made her vision go white and she fell almost completely unconscious as the hands pressed down into her flesh. _

 

Averia jerked out of her reverie and let out a choked sob, her hands tearing into her already messy hair. She tugged on it harshly, trying to remind herself that she was out of that situation, she was safe for now, wherever she was. Regardless of her attempts to keep herself calm, she could feel the injuries as though they were happening now, and Averia needed a way to get herself out of this mood.

 

Shaking, she dragged herself over to her stack of paper and her coloring pencils, making an attempt to draw something,  _ anything _ to make the memories disappear. She grabbed the first pencil she could find, not caring about what color it was, and placed the pointed end onto a clean sheet of paper. Lines formed nonsensically on the page, and much to her dismay, Averia felt no better in doing so. 

 

Her hands were trembling too much for her to try and create a meaningful drawing, and she could feel it worsening with every second. It had been easy before, but no comfort came from her attempt to create. The paper fluttered to the floor from her hands, and the pencils clattered next to them, rolling away from her. 

 

Her hands reached for the book that Papyrus had last brought to her, a small book about a bunny and his friends. The moment she opened the pages, the words and pictures began to blur, seeming to become a dripping ink all over the floor that turned a deep red upon its impact with the metal. The heavy scent of iron slapped her across the face as the red oozed out, staining her skin the same sickening color.

 

Averia dropped the book, stumbling away from it as the blood ink from the book trailed up to her body and coated her legs and arms, soaking her gown deeply with the stench of iron. It pooled up underneath her, choking her with the scent and making the floor too slippery to stand on. The appearance of the blood, combined with the smell and the slick, warm feeling underneath her fingers and body, was becoming too much for her to bear.

 

Her whole body was heaving, her stomach began to churn and she worried that she might be sick all over herself. The room was spinning, and Averia collapsed into a heap, her breathing becoming shallower and shallower. It felt as though the walls were beginning to press in on her and a strange buzzing began to fill her ears, growing louder by the second. Her senses were escaping her, drifting into the place where she couldn’t get a hold of them and pull herself to reality.

 

A whine escaped her throat, pleading with the demons in her head to just leave her be, but there was no escape from herself, especially not in this tiny cell. The buzzing became a dull roar, which quickly turned into a scream that rivalled her own. Averia didn’t recall when she started to shriek, but there was nothing that would get her to stop for long now.

 

All she could see were the people harming her, their faces twisted into anger or malice as they attacked her. Phantom pains shot through her body as each blow landed cruelly on her body in her visions. She needed help, someone, anyone to come help her, because these people were hurting her. 

 

She needed  _ Papyrus _ . The tall skeleton would certainly be able to chase the demons away, to wrap her up into a warm and comforting hug. Her soul was weeping for him, though she didn’t know if he could even hear her where he was at. A cry for help left Averia’s lips between screams as she curled tightly in on herself, trying to make herself as small as possible to avoid the terrors plaguing her mind and body.

 

_ But nobody came. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Averia's perspective on Chapter 8's events where her face was torn open by the machine. After she thinks back to it, she remembers the abuse of her childhood on the Surface in various forms, then starts to hallucinate when she tries to distract herself with other things. 
> 
> This chapter really starts to delve into the darkness that is Averia's past, and it's not pretty. There will be more of this stuff later on, but each chapter will be appropriately marked at the beginning.
> 
> Come bother me on [my blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)!! Tell me what you think about the story so far!


	13. Returning to Her

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An insight into what Sans thinks of Papyrus and Averia's relationship. Papyrus goes to visit Averia but all is not well. Gaster offers an interesting proposal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter contains mentions of panic attacks and implications of self harm. Reader discretion is advised.

Papyrus was unsettled by the entire matter of his father’s behavior to Averia, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak to his father when he had gotten home. The words had died on his teeth the moment he wanted to speak them upon seeing Gaster’s tired and upset expression. He wasn’t sure if talking to his father in this condition would make any progress at all, and so Papyrus said nothing.

 

Sans seemed a little worried at this as well, but he also chose not to speak up, waiting for when his brother would be ready to talk. However, he did plan on making a small chat with his father, should Papyrus be unwilling to start the conversation himself. Gaster had soon disappeared into his home office, spending the whole night in there alone, while his two sons worried about him.

 

It was almost a week later that Papyrus had the chance to take a break from sentry duty, having been sworn in just a day after Averia’s incident in the lab. He took his job very seriously, and was grateful to being one step closer to his dream job of being in the Royal Guard. However, he felt his soul getting restless and uneasy as more time passed, anxious to see Averia again and wondering how she was. It was almost as if she had been calling for him in her soul, and he could feel it gnawing at him, telling him to go to her.

 

When he finally managed to snag a day off, he awoke earlier than normal, before the light of day, and grabbed an orange sweater and some black pants to put on. In his haste, he scrambled downstairs with the sweater on backwards down to the laundry room to grab Averia’s clothes, which hadn’t been taken back to her through the entire week he was gone. Sans was sitting tiredly by the washing machine with his phone in his hand, presumably having an insomnia episode, looking up as Papyrus rushed in.

 

“Uh, bro?” he said as the taller skeleton dug out the clothing Averia had been borrowing for the past week or so. “Your sweater is on backwards, might want to fix that before you head out to the lab and all.” Papyrus paused to check for the tag, confirming that it was on the wrong way before he sighed and took off the sweater to fix his error. He had been so eager to see Averia that he was unpresentable to her, of course. For some reason, Papyrus thought that she might not mind seeing him disheveled, granted she might tease him over the error.

 

Sans watched as his younger brother fixed his shirt, a small noise of surprise leaving him as he could see his brother’s soul within his ribcage, gleaming brightly. He rubbed his eye sockets and looked again, making sure it wasn’t the lack of sleep making him see things, but it was still there. Even though skeletons had only empty air between their ribs, their souls typically were not visible to others. Sans found himself staring at Papyrus’ soul, confusion twisting through his skull as to why his brother would be showing his soul.

 

“Sans?” Papyrus said, breaking his brother’s confused stare with whatever he was seeing. “Have I got something on my ribs? Is something the matter?” Sans blinked at him, then grinned as though all were fine, though Papyrus could detect some hesitance in the smile.

 

“Nope, all good Paps,” he said casually. “I was just admiring how your sentry duties had made you more confident ‘s all. You’ve been standing up real straight the past few days and the way it makes you look is nice.”

 

“Nyeh heh heh! Why of course, brother! I am one step closer to becoming a Royal Guard with my sentry position! Why wouldn’t I be more confident and sure of myself in this way?” Papyrus said, posing dramatically, then putting his sweater on appropriately. Sans found himself chuckling at his brother’s enthusiasm.

 

“You’re so cool bro,” he said, turning back to his phone, his mind awhirl.  _ Why would Paps be showing his soul to me? Unless… He’s not doing it on purpose. But still, what is causing him to show his soul? _

 

Papyrus fished out the final pieces of clothing for Averia from the clean clothes in a basket, then headed over to the kitchen before Sans could think of an answer. Shrugging, he meandered in after his brother to find him pulling out a great deal of food out of the cabinets and setting it on the counter next to an empty bag and a thin book. He assumed it was for the human, but as he went to ask, Papyrus checked the time on the kitchen clock.

 

“Oh! I’ve got to get going! Averia is expecting me at the lab and I can’t be late! I’m sorry I can’t make you any breakfast today, brother, but I really need to get back to her so that she isn’t lonely anymore! I haven’t seen her all week, after all, and she will need the company!” Papyrus quickly packed almost all the food into the bag, leaving only a small box of cereal and three packets of oat bars that didn’t fit in. 

 

**_She’s_ ** _ the reason he so worked up today?  _ Sans thought with a touch of surprise.  _ That kinda explains why he’s in such a rush, but could that also explain why his soul was showing? I gotta talk to Dad after this, there’s something strange going on here and I need to get to the bottom of it. Soulmates or no, this is getting to be really weird and Paps isn’t acting quite like himself... _

 

“Good luck today, bro,” Sans called out as Papyrus rushed out of the front door, slamming it behind him in a rush of energy. Silence filled the air of the house, only the ticking of the clock from the living room interrupting the emptiness. Sans felt the tension release from his shoulders and he let out a sigh. After a moment of hesitation, he ran his hands over his skull in confusion, then grabbed one of the oat bars.

 

_ What the hell are you doing to my brother, human? _ He thought to himself as he made his way to the couch, an oat bar in hand.  _ What is it you want with him? How are you affecting his soul in such a way? Something about this doesn’t seem right…. _

 

“I need a nap,” Sans said aloud, dropping himself on the faded cushions of the couch and placing the oat bar in his pocket.  _ Maybe that’ll help me to clear my head. And perhaps I should pay the human a visit later today, if they’ll even let me near ‘em in the first place...  _

 

He let out a laugh, then draped an arm over his eye sockets, hoping to get some rest for the moment. He hadn’t slept well the past few nights, thinking about what his father had done to the human, who clearly meant a lot to Papyrus. It was starting to wear on him and a nap sounded like the perfect remedy. He could figure out what was going on with his brother and the human once he had a clear head.

 

As Papyrus made his way to the lab, clothing and food in hand, he wondered how Averia was doing. He knew that she had faced some truly awful things on the Surface, if her scars had been any indication, but she had seemed better than before. She was happy, she had a name, and she was safe in the lab. She couldn’t be hunted down by the Royal Guard, and as far as he knew, Undyne, the captain of said guard, had no idea that Averia existed.

 

He entered the lab in high spirits, heading quickly to the elevators so that he could reach Averia sooner. His soul fluttered urgently in his ribcage, suddenly feeling as though it was of utmost importance to be with her, and not just because she had been lonely. Papyrus almost paused, but the desperate feeling in his soul only magnified with that action, so he continued, a little faster this time. He went over to the elevators and pressed the button for the appropriate floor, hoping that everything was alright.

 

The cell was drawing nearer, and Papyrus was suddenly hit with a wash of panic that seemed to come out of nowhere. It nearly knocked him off of his feet and he stumbled into the elevator as the doors slid open, grasping at a rail for support so that he could stand up. After a moment, he recognized that the panic wasn’t coming from him, or his own soul, but from Averia’s. 

 

His own soul fluttered at her dismay in response, and he raced down the hallway, nearly dropping the bag of food and clothing in the process. His footsteps pounded on the tiles of the floor, his soul crying out to hers to try and alleviate the situation. Once he reached her cell, he saw the utter chaos that almost explained why she was in such a panicked state.

 

The drawings from her walls had been torn to shreds, the pieces scattered on the floor in piles and a general state of disarray. His book that he had let her borrow was nowhere to be seen and the coloring pencils he’d brought were all broken into pieces, some of the ends bloodied. Averia herself was curled tightly in a corner across the room, her hands woven tightly into her hair, and he could hear her hitched breathing and sobbing from the doorway. Papyrus immediately dropped everything he was carrying and rushed through the door to go to her side.

 

“Averia!! Averia, it’s okay, I’m here!” he cried, trying to comfort her. The moment his hands landed on her shoulders, she let out a shriek, pushing him away from her. Though he was hurt by the action, he noticed that her eyes were glassy and darting from side to side, as if she were seeing things that weren’t really there. He took a moment to look over her for any ideas on what to do, despite his urgent need to protect her.

 

She was shaking badly, unable to keep her body from shuddering up against the wall as whatever she was seeing scared her. Averia’s eyes were unfocused and her breathing was going to cause her to pass out if she kept hyperventilating the way she was. Papyrus gently tried to take her hands out of her hair, resulting in her crying out again and pushing him back, her sobbing only growing worse.

 

_ This is bad, _ Papyrus thought, worry filling his skull rapidly.  _ She won’t let me close enough to touch her, and I can’t help her like this! I…. I don’t know what to do… What even  _ **_can_ ** _ I do in this scenario?? What would Sans do…? _

 

“Averia,” he said in almost a whisper. “Averia, it’s Papyrus, it’s your friend. I’m right here, okay? I won’t hurt you, you’re safe here with me.” Her green eyes flicked to his face briefly, which gave him a little hope, though the glassy quality didn’t dim from them. He started to raise a hand to her shoulder, but when she flinched away, he brought it back down to his side.

 

“Averia,” he tried again, keeping his voice low and gentle. “I will not hurt you, remember? I am here to help you. I brought you another book to read from the library today, and I can get you some more paper and pencils to color with later. You are in my father’s lab, not on the Surface. I gave you your name last week, and I have been teaching you to speak and read. I’m not whatever it is you see right now in your head.”

 

Averia’s eyes focused on his face again and he could feel the panic in her soul beginning to ebb though she continued to sob shakily. The glassiness of her eyes flickered and began to fade out, and she blinked several times. Papyrus tentatively reached out a hand to rest on her shoulder, and she didn’t flinch, pull away from him, or push him off. Instead, she looked at the hand, then back into his eye sockets, squinting momentarily before she let out a soft groan.

 

“Papyrus..?” she said slowly, her green eyes looking at him directly now, with no traces of fog covering them. He let out a sigh of relief, pulling her gently into a hug, his worry over her well-being overriding his concern about what could happen with their souls again. Averia took a moment, her breathing slowing down and her sobs subsiding, then twined her arms carefully around his ribcage.

 

With his arms around her, he was able to feel her trembling in his arms, and he carefully picked her up in his arms. Averia clung to his sweater sleeves, her legs wrapping around his spine to try and keep herself from sliding. Papyrus sat down on her bed, still holding her in his arms, and she made no attempt to get out from his grasp. His hands trailed up and down her back, rubbing it gently through the fabric of the lab dress she was wearing. 

 

Papyrus took a moment to look at Averia, and to really take a look at what had happened to her since he had been gone. Her skin was paler than he had seen before, almost as white as the uncolored scraps of paper on the floor. There were dark circles under her eyes as if she hadn’t been sleeping well, and new scabs had crusted over wounds on her arms and legs. 

 

_ That explains why some of her pencils have blood on them _ , he thought quietly to himself.  _ Whatever happened to cause her to be upset made it so that she used them on herself to distract herself from it. But she still should be careful, and this isn’t the way she needs to be living. _

 

Averia was still shaking when Papyrus set her down, though he had to pry her hands out of his sweater. She refused to let go of it, and as much as he wanted to keep in contact with her to help her to calm down, Papyrus knew she needed to be dressed warmer and her wounds treated. Regardless, she persisted and clung to his sweater despite his best efforts to remove her hands.

 

“Please, Papyrus, I need you to stay here, don’t leave me, don’t leave me, _ don’t leave me _ ,” she pleaded, tears forming in her green eyes again. Papyrus, on an impulse, took her hands and pressed his teeth to her knuckles, before managing to get them unwound from the orange fabric of his sweater. His soul hummed soothingly to hers which seemed to produce enough calm that her soul started to relax.

 

“I’m not leaving,” he reassured, keeping his voice as gentle as possible. “You’re cold and you need something to heal you. I’ve brought you some clean clothes and some food, and I can heal the wounds on your arms and legs, but I need to get them from the bag. I’m not leaving the room, You’ll see me the whole time, okay?” Averia hesitated, but she let go and curled in on herself again.

 

Papyrus quickly walked over to the bag he had abandoned on the floor, and brought out the clothing for her. As he stood to bring it to her, he looked up to see Gaster standing in front of him, and he nearly dropped the bundle of clothing to the floor. His father had a strange look on his face, and Papyrus couldn’t discern what was going on with his sudden appearance. He hadn’t even heard him come by the door, much less the elevator or anything that should have alerted him to the arrival of the elder skeleton.

 

“D-Dad!” Papyrus said in surprise, carefully balancing the clothing and a few packets of food in his hands. “You came here earlier than I expected, and I-I guess I wasn’t ready for anything you have, erm… planned for today.”

 

“You’re here early as well, Papyrus,” his father commented, a strange smile coming to his face. “I have a special series of tests now that I would like to perform, but I would like to talk to the both of you. Is that alright with you, human?” 

 

“ **_Averia_ ** ,” Papyrus hissed, loathing the way that Gaster had so distastefully said the word  _ human _ to her. “She has a name now, please use it, Dad.” The scientist eyed his son carefully, taking note of how his hands tightened on the clothing he was holding. He made a mental note of the reaction, and smiling to himself just a little more. This was going to be something very interesting indeed, and he was eager to see the results of this little testing set, just to see if there was something that would be changing at the rate he had hoped.

 

“Yes, yes, Averia,” Gaster said, waving his holed hand dismissively, observing the tension building in Papyrus’ shoulders. “Averia, would you like to hear this as well?” Averia barely stirred from the bed, and Papyrus returned to her side quickly with the clothes in hand for her to change into. She disappeared into the small bathroom area with reluctance, her eyes lingering on Gaster with distrust. 

 

She returned quickly, wearing the ill-fitting clothing that Papyrus had brought to her, before she clung carefully to Papyrus’ sleeve. In response, the young skeleton tugged her a little closer and almost wrapped an arm around her shoulders, though he stopped and thought better of it. Instead, he carefully grabbed her hand, lacing his fingers with hers and relishing in the warm feeling his soul got from her.

 

_ No need to get Dad thinking too hard about the way I’ve been feeling, and now is not the time for me to be bringing that up. Averia needs me to be here for her in support, not for me to break down myself. Whatever it is she needs, I’ll be there to protect her and care for her. _

 

Gaster watched the two for a moment, not missing the gestures that had happened between the two of them. He took careful note of both the pink blush forming on the human’s face and the orange one on his son’s. Their souls glowed faintly when their hands had intertwined, and the scientist knew in his skull that this was excellent progress. Something he hoped to further with the “tests” he was getting ready to perform.

 

“Well now,” he said, clearing his non-existent throat. “I realize that the two of you are likely very upset about what happened last week, and I just wanted to apologize. It seems in the way that I had designed that test, I had brought up some very painful memories, hu- Averia.” He took careful not of how she flinched at the mention of not only the memories, but also the incident a week prior.  _ All as I intend it to be. _

 

“As an apology, and perhaps a step to healing this rift, the next set of tests are extremely simple, and I have something very special in mind for the two of you.” Gaster said softly, sweeping his hands out in a wide, friendly gesture. “The tests are pure observations at this stage and have no harm in them at all. Of course, if you don’t want to participate, you are allowed to say no to any of them.”

 

“What sort of things did you have in mind?” Averia asked, her voice soft and cracking, most likely from the crying she had been doing only moments ago. Papyrus looked at her with concern, but only gave her hand a squeeze of support, which she returned almost immediately. Gaster’s odd smile only seemed to grow at the question, something which worried both the skeleton and the human in front of him. He spread his hands in front of him, as if to show a sign of peace.

 

“I want you to come to our home and stay there for awhile, living with Papyrus, myself, and Sans. What do you think?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TWO CHAPTERS IN TWO DAYS BOOM!!! 
> 
> We're starting to pick up steam in the plot now guys!! Buckle in, it's only going to have more and more happen!
> 
> Come bother me over on [my blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)!!


	14. A Change of Scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Averia finally gets to properly see some of the Underground as she moves out of the lab.

While both Papyrus and the human stood in stunned silence for a moment, mouths agape, Gaster took a quick mental inventory of the situation. The human had been experiencing a lot of hallucinations and was in an emotional state of chaos, unfit to be left on their own for any great length of time. Bringing it into his home certainly was a risky maneuver, but if all the chips fell into the right places, he would have more than enough of a success to break through in his research. 

 

Not only that, but their mental state could possibly improve at this rate. While he himself would most likely be working in the lab for most days and Papyrus would be on sentry duty, Sans was more of a homebody. Sure he had a few odd jobs here and there, and had talked of becoming a sentry himself, but most days he spent were on the couch or in his room, with occasional trips to Grillby's. 

 

The likelihood that the human would ever be by itself was slim, though not entirely impossible to occur. He was willing to risk it, and he needed the human to recover appropriately in its mental conditions to have the experiment continue on. The lab, while an effective way of monitoring and containing it, was not ideal for any sort of recovery of mental stability.

 

“Why… why do you want her to come into the house with us, Dad?” Papyrus asked, his voice uncertain. Had Gaster not prepared for this question, he may have panicked at it, but he was ready for this kind of inquiry. Papyrus was naturally inquisitive, after all.

 

“Its condition has worsened in your absence, and I think that the confines of this cell are not aiding in any sort of recovery. I do think that a change of scene would be both an interesting way to get Averia up and about in a proper manner and would serve as a way to start the road of apology for my actions earlier in the week.” His reply was smooth and even, and he could see the human weighing the options nervously, shifting its gaze to and fro around the tiny, metal-lined room. 

 

_ There is no reason for it to refuse my more than generous. It hates being here at the lab as much as it adores to hang onto Papyrus’ arm. I have already made the necessary preparations for the human to arrive, and I have placed a few cameras in some places that the human should be traversing in most frequently in the house. _

 

“I-I need to take a minute to process this,” Averia said uncertainly, tugging on Papyrus’ sleeve carefully. Gaster had to suppress a growl of frustration and keep his temper in check. There was  _ no need _ for her to wait, to think about the offer he had just presented, but he needed her to have the illusion that she was in control of the situation. He gave a small nod, then moved a little further away from them.

 

Papyrus carefully steered Averia over to the side of the room, though he knew that they would still be heard by his father only a few paces away. He was worried about the sudden offer, and there was something fishy about the nature of it, though he should have no qualms about it.  _ This should be good for her, right? To get her out of the lab and to see some new places? Why do I feel as though there must be some sort of ulterior motive behind this? _

 

In a moment, he realized that this was what Averia was feeling, what her soul was telling him she was thinking. The thoughts and emotions were so strong that it was practically hitting his own soul with the force of a blizzard. She was terrified that this was all going to turn out badly, but Papyrus knew that she might actually be safer inside their house. He gently gripped her shoulders, making her look up at him.

 

“I know you’re scared, but there is no reason to be afraid,” he said, his voice light and cheerful. “Whatever happens, I, the Great Papyrus, will protect you from everything I can! You will be safe with me and my family, I know it. I trust them with everything in my soul. I won’t ask you to do that yet, but I just know you will love my brother Sans, once you get past his laziness and his poor habits! Please, come with us so that we can protect you.”

 

Averia’s green eyes never once left his face, searching for something in his gaze that he didn’t quite know just yet. After a long minute of silence, she nodded, and Papyrus let out a breath of relief he didn’t know he was holding in. With a smile on his skull, he retook her hand, and the pair turned back to Gaster, who had been waiting for them patiently. The elder skeleton had folded his hands behind his back while watching their exchange quietly, though he did not interfere, as asked of him.

 

“I trust you two have come to a decision, then?” he asked smoothly. Averia nodded her head and looked up at Gaster, though she still seemed afraid to directly speak to him.

 

“Y-yes,” she started, then cleared her throat to try and rid her voice of the shakiness it held. “Yes, I would like to go with you to your house. When do we leave?” Gaster took his hands from behind his back and stepped over to Papyrus, placing a hand on his shoulder.

 

“We leave now, so if there is anything you want to take with you, get it at once. Papyrus, may I speak with you in the hallway, privately?” Gaster smiled softly at his son, his face seeming to be relaxed and calm.

 

If the tight grip on his shoulder and the tone of his father’s voice was a hint, however, Papyrus knew that it wasn’t really a question being asked of him, but rather a demand wrapped in the packing of a request. Averia hesitated, shifting from side to side when the pair moved to leave, and Papyrus sent her a warm smile to reassure her that they wouldn’t be long. She returned the gesture with a smile of her own, but it seemed a bit forced.

 

“What did you need to talk to me about, Dad?” Papyrus asked once they were in the hallway, just a few paces away from the door. Gaster turned to face his son and looked at him quite sternly, a look that was rarely given to anyone unless he was angry. Papyrus’ light and happy expression instantly dropped once he saw the look his father was giving him.

 

“Just because the human is coming into our home does not mean that they are not dangerous, Papyrus,” Gaster said, holding up a hand when Papyrus tried to speak. “I will not have either of my children harmed in this experiment, and you are going to respect that for me. There will be some monitoring needed of them in the house, so I may need you or Sans to make a general log of how the day went. Share whatever is comfortable with you, because I will not invade your privacy.”  _ Yet _ .

 

“She has a  _ name _ ,” Papyrus snapped, agitated that his father seemed to forget that fact more than once now. “And why do we need to put her under constant monitoring and surveillance? She hasn’t done any harm to us so far, and I thought that we could trust her.”

 

_ Oh you poor naive child, how wrong you are about that.  _ Gaster let out a sigh instead of the words he was thinking, and ran a hand down his face carefully, his phalanges tracing his cracks once again. This was turning out to be quite a hassle, though the progress made his soul buzz with excitement. He hesitated only a moment in his response, collecting his thoughts calculatedly.

 

“Yes, her name, Averia,” he said almost dismissively. “I must remind you, Papyrus, that this is still an  _ experiment _ , and just because it is moving locations does not mean that changes. I will still need to record and collect data from this, and the results could radically change if I am unable to do so. I still have to work at the labs aside from this, and I might not necessarily be there to monitor what needs to be seen. Therefore, I have the cameras in place, do you understand now?” 

 

Papyrus couldn’t argue with that, so he let the argument drop, nodding instead. The two walked back to see Averia standing by the door, her unbroken pencils, borrowed books, and the blanket from the bed in hand. She was staring at her feet but looked up when Papyrus and Gaster returned. Papyrus sent her another smile, and picked up the abandoned bag of food from the floor and turned to look at his father again. 

 

Without another word, Gaster led them down the hallway to the elevator that would take them out of the labs. It was still early morning, and most of the assistants wouldn’t be in for another half hour or so, which was a good thing for all of them. Averia looked around the hall as they walked, taking in the newer surroundings of the trio. The elevator was a complete mystery to her, and though Papyrus did his best to explain, she was still stumped by its workings.

 

They walked out of the lab quickly, Averia doing her best to keep up with the taller skeletons’ longer strides, and made their way toward Waterfall. There was a heavy silence that filled the air, and no one seemed too keen on breaking it for the moment. Averia was looking around at the space around her, having seen none of Hotland, nearly oblivious to the walk. Papyrus hesitated for a moment when Gaster had made the turn away from the River-Person station.

 

“Why are we headed through Waterfall?” he asked, Averia stopping at his side. “Shouldn’t we be taking the boat ride to get to Snowdin?” Gaster only briefly turned his head to call the answer over his shoulder, continuing to walk as he explained his reasons.

 

“The River-Person, as well as their ride, would provide nothing more than a chance for her to be spotted. We do not want word of her to reach Undyne, now, do we?” With that, he continued onwards, not really stopping or slowing. Papyrus glanced down at Averia, who in turn looked up at him, and the two followed Gaster without responding.

 

The benefit of the extra travel was that Averia seemed very curious about everything around her, including all sorts of new things she encountered. Papyrus could practically see her brimming with questions, but she didn’t ask anything of him, which was a bit confusing.  _ Why won’t she ask what’s on her mind? She clearly wants to know more about the world she’s seeing, and she still says nothing? _

 

In Waterfall, Averia splashed her way through a few puddles, her face lighting up with delight at the sensation. She even began to laugh a little, and Papyrus was tempted to join her, though Gaster calling them back to walking stopped him. Her mood dimmed a bit after that, which made Papyrus’ soul twitch in sadness for her. 

 

_ She was just enjoying having a new environment, why did Dad have to keep her from doing something fun for once? _ Papyrus made a mental note of his father’s attitude in the moment and how it had affected Averia.  _ I’ll have to bring her back here at some point so she can see the puddles here in Waterfall again. Maybe then she’ll feel a little better about what Dad said to her. _

It only took a few more minutes before the air grew colder and Papyrus could almost see Snowdin from where he was walking. He picked up the pace a little bit, eager to get back home and show Averia where she would be staying. There was so much to tell her about, so many things for him to teach her and show her while they were in town! 

 

She could finally have some of his homemade spaghetti, there would be puzzles to complete, she would have all sorts of books to read without needing to wait for him to bring them to her! His excitement was causing him to bounce excitedly, especially as they reached the area where the snow started falling.

Papyrus turned, and noticed that Averia was lagging behind, her feet stopped right beside the snow. She was staring at it, green eyes wide in wonderment, a soft pink on her cheeks and her breath clouding very faintly in front of her. She seemed frozen to the spot, and for a moment, Papyrus groaned internally at his unintentional pun that Sans would have no doubt loved to hear. He stepped back to her, his boots crunching in the snow softly, and held out a hand for her to take.

Averia jolted, a movement that concerned him a little, then took his hand, a smile coming to her face as they started walking again. She squeaked as her feet hit the white powder and she shuddered for a moment. Papyrus looked at her with concern, and she looked up at him, her eyes alight with awe and surprise.

“I-it’s cold!” she exclaimed, trying to take a few more steps while shaking the snow from her bare feet. He had nearly forgotten that humans were more susceptible to the elements than most monsters were. The tall skeleton took a moment to grab the blanket from her hands and wrap it around her shoulders, hoping it would help her feel a little warmer. The two walked on for a few minutes more but Averia soon stopped, picking up a foot from the snow to examine it.

The toes of her feet were turning an odd shade of blue-ish purple, and though she was wearing an old sweater of Sans’, she was shivering. Humans weren’t supposed to turn that color, and he guessed that she was getting far too cold to make her way any further in the snow. Papyrus shifted the bag in his arms to loop the handles at one of his elbows, then moved to stand in front of her, squatting with his back to her.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice full of confusion. Papyrus turned his head to look at her from the corner of his eye socket and gave her a beaming smile. He made a small motion with his skull towards himself, encouraging her to get closer.

“Climb on! I’ll give you a ride the rest of the way into town!” he said happily. Averia hesitated, then clambered onto his back very carefully, as if she was scared to do it. Papyrus waited until she was somewhat situated, then hooked his arms under her legs for support, laughing heartily at the squeak of surprise she made. He stood up and made a dash to catch up with Gaster, who had been moving steadily ahead while the two had stopped.

Papyrus slowed his steps slightly when he heard Averia laughing again, clearly enjoying that she was moving so quickly without using her own legs. His soul thumped in his chest, and he felt as though he himself were the one flying instead of her, just because of her laugh.  _ What is she doing to me...? _ He half wondered if he even cared if this feeling was something bad anymore, though it still scared him.

Gaster led the group into the outskirts of Snowdin, moving as quickly as he was able to now as the townsfolk were starting to get ready for their day. More people would be out and about and could see the human on his son’s back, so they needed to move quickly. He turned to his son quietly while he kept an eye on the townspeople.

“Cover her face, if the town sees her, they’ll alert the Guardsmen and take her to Undyne or the King,” he instructed, and Papyrus nodded. The younger skeleton reached behind him and pulled the blanket up a little more to cover the top of Averia’s head. She shifted uncertainly on his back, quietly asking him what he was doing.

“Put your face into my shoulder,” he gently told her. “We don’t need the town to know you’re a human, because they might not be as friendly to you as we are.” Averia let out a small sound, but quietly obeyed, burying her face into the orange fabric of his sweater. Oddly enough, Papyrus felt his soul telling him that this was what they were meant to do, something it hadn’t been telling him since he first met her.

Averia took a moment to keep herself calm, knowing that even though she was with Papyrus, whom she trusted with her life, others wouldn’t be as kind. She hadn’t even been sure she could trust him for some time, but he had managed to gain that from her fragile, broken soul. Now, as she clung to his back, her arms looped carefully around his neck and her legs on either side of his ribcage, she began to feel that she could trust him forever.

The feeling emanated from her soul, telling her that this was  _ right _ , somehow. The trust she was feeling was perfectly natural, and she didn’t want to let go of that feeling. It had been ages since she had actually managed to trust someone, since the last time she had tried it, it hadn’t ended well, to say the least. 

 

Averia burrowed her face a little deeper into Papyrus’ shoulder, enjoying the feeling of the material on her cheeks. It smelled like something warm and welcoming, like a home should smell, in her own opinion, though it also smelled slightly spicy and tickled her nose a little. It wasn’t altogether too unpleasant, and in fact, was something comforting to her.

The trio quickly maneuvered through the town to the two-story house that stood there near the shop and the inn. Gaster unlocked the door and stepped inside with a relieved sigh. They had made it without other monsters noticing their presence too much, or if they had, they had said nothing to the skeletons. Papyrus tapped the snow off of his boots before stepping inside and closed the door behind him. Averia looked up from his shoulder and he could feel her shifting to look around the living room,  which made him beam with happiness.

 

“Welcome to our home, Averia!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No warnings for the next chapter, and I'm working on getting all the other chapters finished up! I have a lot of the chapters ready to go, but I wanna get most of the story done before I get the next one out. So far, I have about 30 chapters in the wings waiting, so even if I fail to work on a few new ones, there's plenty of updates!
> 
> This one's a little shorter than the other chapters, but it's an important for the story's progression.
> 
> Come bother me on [my blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)!


	15. Home?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Averia sees the house, and re-meets Sans. It's not the smoothest transition...

Averia could hardly believe that she was in another house, one where it was warm and felt completely safe. It was a feeling she wasn’t entirely used to, and she was unable to fully grasp the concept of being in a place where there was no danger. She looked around at all the things this one room had to offer in space, and goodness if there wasn’t a lot.

 

The carpet looked like it would be a little rough under her bare feet and had some strange patterning of a blue and purple zig-zag woven into the material. A faded green couch sat before a television, which was playing some sort of show on it, though she knew not what. There were stairs off to the left, leading to a small, open-air landing with rails, and a kitchen area right in front of them. Averia also noticed a small door over by the stairway, and a table to her immediate right with what looked to be a rock with colored lines on it. 

 

All being said, the house looked cozy and safe, and most certainly was effective at keeping the chill from outside at bay. Already, Averia could feel her toes regaining the feeling they had lost from stepping into whatever that cold white stuff was outside. It had looked pretty enough, but stepping into it was certainly a mistake. She hadn’t felt that cold in a long time, but perhaps it was best to avoid thinking about that for now. Papyrus had promised to keep her safe, and she trusted him to keep his word.

 

As Gaster moved towards the door by the stairs, the couch suddenly made a sound, and upon instinct Averia buried her face back into the soft orange fabric of Papyrus’ sweater to hide. He started to move to set her down, but she let out a noise of disagreement, trying to let her hide. Papyrus sighed and then called out to whatever was on the couch with confidence and a tinge of annoyance.

 

“ _ SANS _ !!” Averia flinched at his volume, and wished she didn’t have to hold to Papyrus’ back so she could cover her ears. “Wake up, you lazybones, we have a guest over and I will not tolerate you sleeping the whole day away when you need to greet them appropriately! Get up this instant and come say hello!!”

 

The thing on the couch groaned and sat up, revealing another skeleton clad in a blue hoodie who was rubbing his skull. Upon facing the three standing by the door, Averia realized that she had seen this skeleton before, though only once. This was the shorter skeleton who had come with Papyrus on the first day they met, but she hadn’t seen him ever since that time. 

 

Papyrus set her down on the ground, and the girl didn’t protest, though she still hung close to the tallest skeleton’s side. Sans looked directly at her, his face going from one of shock to one of a sort of lazy contentment. He even went so far as to throw her a wink, though she only shuffled her feet in response and looked away from him.

 

“We’ve met before, Paps, remember?” he said, his voice holding an almost tired air to it. “The first day we went to the lab, I was there with you and Dad.” Papyrus hesitated, thinking, and then he let out a small noise of remembrance.

 

“Oh! That’s right, you were there! I had almost forgotten because it was nearly eight months ago!” he exclaimed, his voice a little too loud for the close quarters of the house. Averia blinked in surprise at the statement, looking up at the taller skeleton for confirmation. From what little Papyrus had managed to teach her about the days and weeks and such, she knew that was a long time, but she had no idea how long that really was.

 

_ I had no way of telling time in that place I was in before coming here, but was it really almost eight months ago that I met Papyrus? It feels like it was only days ago that he started to visit! That can’t be right, can it? _

 

Sans chuckled from where he sat across the room, leaning his cheekbone on the back of the couch lazily. Even though he looked relaxed, he was tense all over while putting on the airs of his usual temperament. He was clenching his fists behind the couch where neither the human nor his brother could see him doing it.

 

_ Why in Asgore’s name is  _ **_she_ ** _ here? I thought Dad didn’t want her to be brought anywhere outside of the lab until he could talk with the scientists and Asgore? He wouldn’t spring this so early without a reason. It  _ **_would_ ** _ explain why he set up those cameras in the house though. _

 

Sans cast his eye-lights to the two cameras now stationed in the upper corner of the room to his right. They were small and subtle enough to be nearly undetectable unless you knew that they were there in the first place. If one wasn’t really looking, they might’ve been mistaken for a discolored splotch on the ceiling. Gaster had put them up earlier in the week, perhaps a day or two ago, without explaining why he had done so.

 

Sans’ gaze returned to the human, Averia if he recalled correctly, who appeared to be wanting to do anything but be standing in front of him at this moment. He understood that, being the Judge of the Underground had that effect on people anyway. His gaze, relaxed or not, was often described as looking straight into one’s soul, though not in the good way that the cheesy romance novels put it. 

 

Instead, it was like he was looking into the souls of others with a fine tooth comb, picking out right and wrong from their own lives. Clearly, she felt it as well, though he didn’t necessarily have a reason to examine her soul at the moment. That would be for a time if she ever decided to hurt his brother.

 

He hefted himself off the couch to go over and greet her, slipping the small joy buzzer onto his hand from his pocket. Sans had been playing around with this one for a little bit, and in some instances, it had a better effect than his usual trusted whoopie cushion. He hadn’t had a chance to try it with any humans as of late, so this was the perfect chance. He strolled over to Averia and stuck out his hand, hoping she wouldn’t notice the fairly obvious strap.

 

“Nice to finally meet you properly, I’m Sans, Pap’s brother,” he said, smiling easily. Papyrus happened to take note of the strap on his brother’s hand and was about to scold him for a prank when Averia took his brother’s hand. No sooner had she gone to give it a gentle squeeze than the buzzer administered the shock into her palm. Sans was about to explain it, a laugh already bubbling in his ribcage, but what happened with Averia right afterwards shut him up before he could even speak. 

 

She had immediately pulled away from him, her body collapsing in on itself, and her posture practically screamed fear. Her breathing had hitched and he could see tears building up in her green eyes, pushing herself away from him. Additionally, she had begun to whimper, whispering words like “no”, “please”, and “stop” as her hands came up to block her face from him. 

 

Papyrus was there not one second later, kneeling at her side and trying to comfort her from her panicked state. Sans looked down at the two of them, then at the buzzer, deciding that this was not the way to go for handshakes. His whoopie cushion would be just fine for opening pranks, if all humans acted like this, and that would be perfectly safe. He felt a twinge of guilt curl through his soul and he wanted to apologize to her when she was calm.

 

Fortunately, Papyrus was able to get Averia to calm down within a few minutes, though her tear streaked face made Sans feel real awful about making her so scared of him. He quickly came to the realization that something must’ve happened to her on the Surface to make her that jumpy. Sans didn’t like that feeling he got from that thought.

 

She stood up a bit shakily with his brother’s help, and Papyrus shot him a glare that told him to keep his pranks in check. He personally couldn’t agree more after seeing such a dramatic change in behavior like that. For whatever reason, something about what had just occurred sat wrong with his soul. With an awkward glance to the side, he cleared his non-existent throat, hoping to clear the air.

 

“Uh, sorry about that, kiddo,” he said, scratching the back of his skull before removing the buzzer from his palm. “Guess I won’t be using this thing ever again. Let me start again, I’m Sans, Sans the skeleton and Pap’s older brother.” He held out his hand once more, but this time she took it with a lot more hesitance than she had prior. He could feel in her fingers and palm that she was unbelievably tense, only adding to his guilt.

 

“Averia,” she said softly, her voice cracking as she spoke. “My name is Averia.” Sans felt his ever-present grin stretch into more of a natural smile. She was still scared but she hadn’t shied away too much from him, and wouldn’t need to if he didn’t give her a reason to. He dropped her hand after giving it a proper shake, and stuffed it back into his hoodie pocket, watching her carefully. 

 

_ I still need to ask you some questions, kiddo, but it looks like I’ll have to be careful about it now.  _ He glanced over at Papyrus, who still looked uncharacteristically mad, though his attention was turning back to Averia at this point.  _ Anything could possibly set her off, and judging by the look Paps gave me, he’ll be pissed if I manage to do that again. She’s… she’s important to him. Dunno why or how he got so damn attached to a human, but he did, and I’ll be paying for it if she ends up like that again. _

 

Sans stepped aside as Papyrus began to give Averia a long winded explanation of everything in the house and a tour of the place. The shorter skeleton let out a small, mirthless chuckle as he watched the usual energy Papyrus carried return. While his brother certainly was extremely excited to have a real human step into his house, Sans was less than thrilled. All sorts of things could go wrong here, especially now that she was out of the controlled environment of the lab.

 

At least while she was there, Gaster could keep everything in check, keep her from taking a dive off the deep end. He had certain measures in place to ensure safety and complete control over every aspect of his experiments, this one being no exception. At the lab, he had access to anything and everything he could possibly need in a moment should things start to go wrong or take a turn he didn’t anticipate. Here, however….

 

If the human was here, potentially unsupervised, there could be utter chaos in a matter of seconds. Suppose they snap while all of them were asleep and the human dusted them all in their own beds? What if they managed to get themselves killed in an accident while they were all out doing work or something? If there was something to go wrong, there would be no way for  _ any  _ of them to respond appropriately to it.

 

Papyrus led Averia around the living room and into the kitchen, then quickly moved to the upstairs section, yammering away incessantly about the house. Sans could see her smiling rather contentedly at the taller skeleton as they moved around, and she seemed to be enjoying Papyrus’ energy and enthusiasm. There was something undeniably peaceful about the way she was moving about, almost as if this were the greatest thing to have happened to her.

 

Even so, there was something underneath her smile, a look in her eyes that told him she wasn’t telling them all about herself. He knew it easily, as the Judge, and he knew that whatever she was hiding was probably something about either the Surface, or about her soul. It was just enough that Sans was put on edge in her presence.

 

Not only that, she had changed Papyrus, not by too much, but Sans had noticed a change. Papyrus was a little quieter than he normally would be, his voice bordering on reasonable for volume, and he was also very gentle with her. His energy should have been a lot higher than it was at this moment yet he seemed to be restrained with his movements. Sans felt a chuckle rise up in his ribcage, much darker than the one before, and he sat back down on the couch in front of the T.V.

 

_ I”ll have the perfect opportunity to ask you about what your plans are here in the Underground, kiddo. And I know that you’ve been changing my brother. If you don’t manage to fix whatever it is you’ve done to him, well…. _

 

**_Y o u ’ r e  g o n n a  h a v e  a  b a d  t i m e…._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mainly focused on the building of the home life, and how things will work around here. Not too much action will really be happening for a little while, as this is mostly plot building stuff. More to come, I promise!!
> 
> Come bother my on [my blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)!!


	16. Trying to Settle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Averia's first day spent in the skeleton household is exciting. How do Sans and Papyrus feel about their newest housemate?

Averia had listened as Papyrus told her every little detail that he could about the house, and followed him eagerly to each room. He was quite excited about the fact that she would be staying with the skeletons, though she knew that his brother, Sans, didn’t seem too fond of the idea. Something about him, now that she was going to be in close quarters to him unsettled her. He had been looking  _ through _ her, not just at her when they had spoken by the door.

 

Now, as Papyrus was finishing his small tour of their home, he sat her down on the couch next to him, his face beaming with pride. He had a few books in his lap with one open, ready to read to her, and she sat close to him, eager to see what was on the pages. Not a few moments later, before either of them could begin to look at the book, she heard a small sound and Sans appeared out of nowhere in front of her.

 

With a squeak of surprise, Averia scrambled backward away from him, nearly falling over the arm of the couch. When she had calmed herself enough not to flee the room, she noticed both Papyrus and Sans staring at her. Sans had what seemed the equivalent of an eyebrow raised in curiosity, and his hands shoved into his hoodie pocket. Papyrus’ jaw was hanging in surprise, and then she swore she could see sparkles in his eye sockets.

 

“OH MY STARS THAT WAS THE CUTEST THING I HAVE EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE!!!!” he practically squealed, scooping her up into a massive hug and spinning her around. “YOU ARE SO PRECIOUS, AVERIA!!” 

 

Averia wasn’t too sure why he thought that was cute, as something like that back where she was from would have resulted in less than pleasant reactions. This reaction was undoubtedly a surprise to her, but she found it much better than the alternative options. Papyrus was happy that she was doing whatever it was she was doing, but at the moment Averia found herself a little unsure in this situation. Sans chuckled from where he stood.

 

“Heya Pap, you might want to put Averia down before she passes out on you, she’s looking too  _ turned around _ to make sense of what you’re doing,” he said, tossing Averia a wink. Papyrus let out an angry cry and set her down gently before he started telling Sans how he felt about the pun.

 

“That pun wasn’t even all that great!” he scolded his shorter brother, wagging a finger in his face. “And it certainly wasn’t as great as me! You must learn to contain yourself with all these puns, or you will end up negatively affecting Averia! She must not be scared off by your horrendous lack of humor!” 

 

Sans shrugged at his brother, his grin seeming to stretch into a more mischievous look. Averia looked between the two of them, confused to what was going on and uncertain of what “puns” were and why they were terrible. Papyrus took one look at his brother and immediately put his hands on the sides of his pelvis, glaring down at him.

 

“Sans, don’t you dare.” Sans’ grin only seemed to stretch further at his brother’s attempt to dissuade him from whatever he was about to do. Papyrus upped his glare a few notches, but Sans wasn’t swayed by it. 

 

“Come on, bro, I thought it was pretty-” 

 

“Sans, NO!!”

 

“ _ Puntastic _ , if you ask me,” Sans finished, pulling his hands out of his pockets to make little finger guns at Papyrus. Averia tipped her head in confusion as Papyrus practically screamed, still wondering what was going on with them.

 

“Oh my  _ STARS _ , SANS!!” Papyrus cried, putting his hands on his head as if to try and block the puns from reaching his non-existent ears. “You cannot be saying this in front of Averia!! You will corrupt her!! Your awful taste in puns will forever mar her humor!!” Sans let out another chuckle, then allowed his hands to slip back into his pockets.

 

“Yeah, yeah, sure thing, Paps,” he drawled. “By the way, don’t you have some extra training that you need to do today with Undyne or something? I thought I heard you talking about it with Dad yesterday or something.” The taller skeleton let out a huff, clearly still miffed about his brother’s usage of puns, but straightened out his spine.

 

“No, Sans, I am off for today and will have plenty of time to make sure Averia is feeling welcome in our home,” Papyrus replied. “I was talking with Dad the other day about how training was going, and I think I am making great progress! Soon I shall be a Royal Guard and I, the Great Papyrus, shall have spectacularly achieved my dreams!” He accompanied this statement with a laugh and Sans grinned at him.

 

“You’re so cool, Paps,” he said cheerily, making Papyrus stand a little taller. Averia was about to voice her agreement when Sans sent a glance her way. While he wasn’t necessarily threatening her with his eye-lights, the message she got from that look was all too clear. 

 

_ Watch whatever you say next, because I’ll be sure to remember it and hold you accountable for it later. _

 

“I think you’re cool, without having to be in the Guard,” Averia managed to say, and Papyrus gave her a genuine smile as thanks. Sans seemed to relax a little bit more at her choice of words and started meandering over to the kitchen, humming something to himself. Papyrus sat back down and reopened the book that had previously been abandoned on the couch cushions when he picked her up. 

 

“Now, where were we before we were so  _ rudely interrupted _ by Sans and his terrible puns?” he said, raising his voice to make sure that his brother heard him in the kitchen. A short laugh came from the kitchen, and then there was a gentle quiet that followed. Papyrus let out a sigh of relief, then turned his gaze back to the book in his lap and began to read aloud to her.

 

Averia listened to the way Papyrus was reading, his voice soothing and low, though still filled with the energy that he had earlier. The book, he claimed, was one of his favorites and one that he had Sans read to him often before bed as a younger skeleton. The pages were colorful and cute, but soon the lack of sleep over the past several days began catching up to her. Her attention began to waver, her vision blurring and fading now and then as her focus slipped.

 

Papyrus took note of Averia swaying beside him, though he kept reading for a little longer, a smile on his skull. It seemed to him as though the power of reading  _ Peekaboo with Fluffy Bunny _ was the same with her as it was to him. When he was a few pages away from the end, she suddenly fell onto his shoulder, her eyes closed and her breathing soft. After a few seconds to process what had happened, he set the book aside and gently scooted Averia off the couch and into his arms. 

 

She didn’t stir when he lifted her, and she remained in her doze when he carried her up the stairs to his room. He had to use his foot to nudge the door open, but even when it creaked on its hinges, Averia didn’t wake up. Papyrus was almost sure that she was unable to sleep well if it only took a few moments for her to fall asleep.

 

Once she was laid carefully on his racecar bed, the young skeleton took a step back to look at the small human. Her dark hair splayed around her face, and her chest rose and fell ever so slightly as she breathed. His soul thumped in his chest, telling him that this was something that was something that felt natural again. Subconsciously, he raised a hand to his ribcage, trying to soothe his soul as he turned to make his way back downstairs to let her sleep.

 

Sans stood at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for him with his hands still in his pockets, though now he smelled like ketchup. Papyrus greeted him and started to make his way into the kitchen as well, hoping to make some of his famous spaghetti for Averia when she woke up. Moments after he began to pulling ingredients, Sans appeared in the doorway.

 

“Whatcha doing there, bro?” Sans asked, leaning casually against the doorway. Papyrus continued to grab what he needed from the cabinets and fridge as he responded to his brother’s question.

 

“I was going to make Averia some of my delicious spaghetti for when she wakes up!” he proclaimed, pulling out the most massive pot he could find and set it into the sink to fill. “She has not eaten anything yet, and I need to make sure that she stays healthy or else there may be some problems that arise later.”

 

“Problems?” Sans wondered out loud. “What sorts of problems could a human get from not eating enough food?” Papyrus paused, his hand holding a tomato that he was getting ready to set on the counter with other vegetables. Sans felt a growing concern filling his skull when his brother didn’t respond for a minute more.

 

“I… I don’t know,” Papyrus finally said, setting the tomato aside before turning to look at Sans, who hadn’t moved from his spot. “Something in my soul was telling me that she needs to eat food and that it isn’t good for her to not eat. Averia was so… so….” He struggled to find the word for a moment, his hands waving about as he searched for it.

 

“Weak?” Sans offered, standing upright from the doorframe, and Papyrus nodded emphatically, returning to his vegetables on the counter.

 

“Yes!” he said, finally beginning his cooking process. “Averia looked so weak when we first saw her, and she looked almost like we do, which I am certain that humans are not supposed to look like! Right now, Averia appears to be better than before, but still needs something to eat. I….” Papyrus hesitated in his actions and speaking, just as he had before, then shook his head. “Nevermind….” 

 

Sans observed his brother, noting the sudden tension in the taller skeleton’s shoulders after avoiding whatever it was he was going to say. Before he could speak, however, Gaster entered the room, looking slightly frazzled, and poured himself a cup of coffee. With practiced ease, the scientist downed the entire mug of black liquid, then got another one. Both of his sons stared at him, as he wouldn’t usually do this unless he was preparing for several nights of work or trying to get something done.

 

“I need the both of you to keep an eye socket on the human for me for a few days,” he said in an agitated voice, sipping at the next mug of coffee carefully and ignoring Papyrus’ miffed expression. “I have been called in for an essential matter about the Core, and I will likely not be home for at least three nights, possibly more. It may have some trouble adjusting to this new environment, and as such, I need the two of you to keep an eye socket out for it. Swap out as need be, but I must be going now.”

 

With a final gulp to drain the mug a second time, Gaster set the cup down on the countertop. He moved swiftly and with purpose, grabbed his coat, and was out the door before either brother had a chance to respond. They both stared at the door for a moment, then looked at each other in confusion. 

 

“Well,” Sans said with a sigh. “I suppose we’re both on human duty for awhile then. I don’t get why he’s still all worked up over her. Sure, she’s got a weird color soul, but other than that, what’s the big deal with moving her?” Papyrus couldn’t think of a satisfying answer himself, so he merely relayed what their father had told him.

 

“After the accident, something in Averia changed, or maybe was brought out,” he said softly, fiddling with his phalanges and not meeting his brother’s gaze. “She was scared, like you saw earlier, but worse. Dad came in after I had calmed her down, and he offered to bring her here as an apology for what had happened last week.” Papyrus took a shuddering breath to calm himself, the image of all the dark blood filling his skull for a moment.

 

“Averia seemed… reluctant to come here at first, but she still agreed, and I think the change of scenery will be good for her! I can also spend more time teaching her things, like how to cook spaghetti, how to read more complicated words, and how to do puzzles.” 

 

Sans thought that using this as a form of “apology” didn’t seem too much like what his father would normally do. However, he brushed it aside for the moment, filing the information away for later in his skull. He leaned casually against the counter, still watching his brother as he returned to making the spaghetti.

 

“Hey, Paps, let me help you make the spaghetti. I think you might need some assistance, but I don’t wanna  _ stir the pot _ ,” he quipped with a wink. It took Papyrus a second, wherein he stared at his brother in confusion, but his usual reaction followed quickly.

 

“OH MY STARS, SANS, STOP IT!!!”

 

Meanwhile, Gaster had already hurried into his lab, having used one of his rare, and quite frankly, exhausting teleports to get there. He was already monitoring the past exchanges between his sons and the human. His fingers steepled under where his nose would be and his eye sockets were narrowed slightly in concentration. The footage, while only a few minutes old, required some crucial observance and details about how the experiment was to go forward.

 

He scanned the footage with a keen gaze, looking for any traces of soul-bonding in any form. Much to Gaster’s surprise, there was hardly any at all, though he could see the wisps of soul magic when the two were sitting on the couch. A strange tug pulled at his soul upon watching such intimate footage, where two souls were radiating such a strong presence, but he hurriedly pushed that aside. He couldn’t afford to be distracted and returned to the analysis.

 

_ There is already significant progress in the relationship between Papyrus and the human, but Sans may pose an issue.  _ He let out an audible hum, slowly moving his hands to write out some notes. His inner thoughts were troubled at the notion that his eldest son would become hazardous to the experiment. Sans had an innate knowledge of the sciences, and knew quite a good deal about souls as well, and was almost trustworthy of this information.

 

Almost.

 

_ I may have to talk with him soon, to ensure the safety of this experiment. He deserves to know about my intentions as well, but Papyrus will need to be kept out of it as much as possible. Should he know about what I intend to do with that human’s soul… _

 

_ All of my work would go to waste… _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I was going to update this sooner for the two of you who actually read this. Anyway, we get a little bit more of a look into how things are functioning in the skeleton household! There's a lot more of this to come, so be ready!!!
> 
> Come bother me on [my blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)!!


	17. Learning Something New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Averia spends more time in the skeleton household and learns some new things.

Averia couldn’t say that she knew all too much about cooking, or about food in general. Back on the Surface, as both the skeleton brothers had said she was from, she hadn’t gotten a chance to cook in the first place. She also hadn’t eaten all too much upon arriving here as well, mostly packaged or pre-made foods that were dry, bland, or both. So when Papyrus offered to teach Averia to cook, she was curious.

 

“What’s cooking? Is it something you can eat? Or maybe something that you draw?” she had asked, which made Sans chuckle from across the kitchen table. He and Papyrus both were in charge of preparing food, though the taller of the two insisted on showing her everything. Currently, he was digging through what he had called a “fridge” and “cabinets,” pulling boxes and whatnot out of them to make small piles of things on the counter nearest him.

 

“Nope, you can’t eat “cooking” itself,” Sans said, leaning back in his chair, hands laced behind his skull. “Cooking’s most often used as a verb, which means it’s something you do. The  _ result  _ of cooking is something that you can eat, though, so you weren’t too far off the mark. Isn’t that right, Paps?” 

 

“Yes indeed, brother!” Papyrus responded, taking all of the things from the counter and laying them neatly before Averia on the table. “We are going to make this a learning experience in foods as well, so we will start there! I will hand you things, and tell you what they are, does that sound simple enough?” 

 

Averia nodded, and Papyrus gave her a beaming smile that she returned with little difficulty. He picked up a red, shiny thing with a small tuft of green on top of it from the items, setting it directly in front of Averia on the table. She poked at it with a finger carefully, then rested her head on her hands to look at it a little closer.

 

“You can pick it up, y’know,” Sans said, tossing her a small wink. “It’s not gonna explode if you do. I imagine that there will be time for that later, once Pap gets to make the food in here.” He chuckled at her confused expression but said no more. Papyrus pointed to the object once Averia picked it up and felt it in her hands.  _ Smooth, but firm to the touch… _

 

“That,” he said, “is a tomato! It is used in several things, but most importantly for the sake of cooking, it is the main ingredient in spaghetti sauce! We will be using a lot of them to make sure that the spaghetti is as great as I am!”

 

“To-ma-to,” Averia repeated slowly, looking at it carefully. “A tomato for sauce? But isn’t sauce something that you can spread around like you can spread water? This is a solid… thing. How does that work?” Papyrus laughed his signature laugh, and gently took the tomato out of her hands, setting it back on the table.

 

“You will see that soon enough, Averia!” He replaced it with a box of something that made a funny rattling noise when she shook it and pointed to the letters on the front. “I know you can read a little bit now since we began to teach you, and you know many of your letters. Can you try to tell us what this says?” Averia looked at the big lettering and her brow furrowed in concentration.

 

“S… B?” she started, and Sans leaned over to look at it before he shook his head, telling her it was wrong. “Um… Oh, that’s P! S-P… A… G… H… E?” She looked up at Papyrus, who nodded happily, and she smiled at him before looking back at the box. Her soul felt a little lighter than it had a moment ago, and she took another look at the lettering on the box.

 

Within a few more moments, she had spelled out the word, letter by letter, and only two mix-ups in total. Sans gave a lazy clap of his hands, his grin seeming the tiniest bit proud. Averia couldn’t explain the speck of warmth that resonated in her chest, but it felt nice all the same.

 

“Good job, kiddo,” he praised, quietly sticking his hands back into his pockets. “That right there says “spaghetti” on it, but that’s just a fancy way of saying noodles. It’s Pap’s favorite thing in the world to cook, and he’s getting better every day.” Averia smiled at Sans, then looked up at Papyrus with the same smile. 

 

He had made this for her on her first day here, which was only a mere three days ago, and even that memory filled her with a different warmth. Having not had a hot meal for as long as she could remember, it had been the most delicious thing she had ever tasted in her life. Both brothers seemed rather shocked at how she had nearly inhaled the dish, her eyes sparkling with pure joy at having hot food in her belly. Now that she could watch it made, she was filled with the same happiness as before.

 

Papyrus took the box from her in the same gentle fashion as before, and continued to point out various objects and stuff on the table, then told her what they were for or what they did. Some of it was tools to be used in the making, like a spoon with holes and rounded teeth, called a “pasta fork,” or the pot that spaghetti cooked in. Averia tried her best to keep up, but there was so much to see with all the ingredients.

 

Other things were spices, used to add flavor to the sauce, like something called “original,” which Sans gently corrected to “oregano.” Papyrus even let her smell the different containers the spices were kept in, which tickled Averia’s nose a bit. Each one was a different color and had different smells that came with it, which was fascinating to her. Where had all of this been on the surface?

 

“And now we will begin cooking!” Papyrus said when he had gone through all of the items on the table. “To the stove! Nyeh heh heh!” He scooped Averia up out of her chair and set her down carefully on the counter so that she could see everything he was doing. She leaned over carefully to try and see everything, but Papyrus urged her not to move too much, or she could get hurt. 

 

Papyrus stretched his arms out in front of him, his fingers interlaced and palms facing outwards, then began his cooking routine. Averia watched in awe as he began to smash up the tomatoes with his hands, making a fine paste out of them. Reflexively, she flinched a little but leaned back in to watch after a few moments.  _ I had no idea that cooking was this intense... It looks frightening if I want to be truthful. _

 

Sans took note of Averia’s slightly scared expression, but when he was about to say something to Papyrus, his brother calmed his actions. It was a surprise to see, as Papyrus usually would go full force into the cooking, telling him that “passion was a part of the process!” with glee. As of right now, he was still doing all the same things, but less forcibly and making much less of a mess. It was kind of cute, but still concerning.

 

_ He didn’t even look at her, but he could tell that she was uncomfortable with him doing something so violently. Is there some psychic connection between the two of them?... Nah, that sort of thing doesn’t exist. It  _ **_is_ ** _ weird, though… _

 

Papyrus had soon scraped everything into the pots he needed to and set the noodles on high heat to boil. Averia watched as the water began to bubble and roll, fascinated by the bubbles that rose rapidly to the surface of the liquid. Sans caught sight of her wide eyes and grinned.

 

“Heh,  _ water _ you looking at, kiddo?” he quipped, and Papyrus’ head turned around quickly to glare at him. “It  _ steams _ that something’s got your attention there. You’re practically  _ bubbling _ with excitement at the  _ drop _ of a hat!”

 

“ENOUGH SANS!!!” Papyrus cried, throwing his hands up in the air. Averia tipped her head to the side again, thought for a moment, then grinned awkwardly.

 

“Um,  _ water _ you talking about, Sans?” she said timidly, uncertain of whether or not it would have the right intention in it. Both skeleton brothers turned to stare at her, and she shifted uncomfortably against the cold stone of the counter. Then, both exploded into their reactions, Sans in a fit of full-blown laughter that shook his body and Papyrus into wails of despair.

 

“Averia, NOO!!” Papyrus cried, falling to his knees dramatically on the floor. “How could you let my brother influence you into his terrible ways?! And only after three days of being in his presence!!”

 

“I’m so proud of you, kiddo,” Sans said, his ever-present grin stretched into a legitimate smile as he wiped a blue-ish tear from his eye socket. “Already makin’ puns and causing Paps some trouble too, and you haven’t even been here all that long.”

 

Papyrus decided against a lecture for Averia’s sake, though she was giggling lightly at the silly interaction between the three of them. Instead, he went for a theatrical flop onto the floor, putting his radius and ulna over his eye sockets in mock despair. Averia seemed confused by his actions, so he tossed her a small wink to let her know he was pretending.

 

“Whatever shall I do with the two of you?” he moaned in a manner that would make his favorite television star, Mettaton, proud. “I can’t even bear it at all! This is too much, so I guess I’ll have to  _ tide _ my time!” He shot a look at Sans, who instantly fell into another round of laughter, nearly choking on the air. Averia was laughing as well, though not quite as hard, seeing as she had yet to learn about larger bodies of water. 

 

“Stars, Pap, I didn’t know you had it in you!” Sans snorted, trying to contain himself to a point where he could speak without choking. Papyrus sat up and laughed his signature laugh, then removed himself from the tiles of the floor to return to cooking.

 

“But of course, brother!” he replied, stirring the spaghetti while Averia watched him. “When you are surrounded by humor, regardless of whether it is good or not, one is bound to pick up a few things!” He turned and gently tapped the end of Averia’s nose with his distal phalanx, which made her beautiful laugh fill the space again.

 

_ Stars, I could get used to how good it sounds to hear her laughing and being happy. She could laugh all day, and I would never get tired of it. She’s never really done it before now, I can imagine, and I want her to be happy. _

 

Papyrus hummed happily as he finished making the spaghetti, Sans watching him lazily from the table. His brother, even though some weird behavior stuff was going on, was happier than ever before, and it made Sans feel a little more comfortable too. Once the taller skeleton had completed everything, he took Averia off of the counter and set her feet carefully on the floor. 

 

“Now, go sit at the table, Averia, and I will bring the food over to you and Sans!” he said before he turned to his culinary creation to dish it out. She happily obliged, walking over to the table and taking a seat next to Sans. The moment she sat down, however, there was a loud sputtering noise that carried on for a few seconds. Silence filled the kitchen, and even Papyrus stopped what he was doing until…

 

“Heh heh, watch out kiddo, there are some weirdos around here who like to leave whoopie cushions on chairs,” Sans said, grinning at her mischievously. Papyrus let out a half-strangled scream from the counter and flung his thankfully empty hands up in the air.

 

“Really, Sans?? At the dinner table?? Is no place of eating sacred enough to you that you won’t go around pulling these pranks??” He turned to face his brother with a scowl on his skull and two plates of spaghetti in his hands. Sans shrugged as Papyrus walked over and set a plate in front of both him and Averia.

 

“Maybe, maybe not,” he said teasingly. Papyrus huffed and grabbed his plate, sitting beside Averia and waiting for her to take a bite of the food. She did so and savored the fact that Papyrus’ food was both hot and edible. Sans made a small noise of surprise but quickly stifled it by eating his own spaghetti.

 

_ Most people can hardly stand the stuff that Paps makes, though by now, both Dad and I are used to it and can enjoy some of it. The human, however…. She not only seems to be able to eat it, but she likes it? It’s odd… _

 

The meal went quickly, with Papyrus talking to Averia and telling her about his day and Sans butting in with a few puns. She seemed to be enjoying herself here if a little uncomfortable initially with being in a strange place. After the food was all eaten, Papyrus whisked away the plates and set them in the sink.

 

“Now!” he said, clapping his palms together. “It is time for Mettaton’s newest show to come on! And so, we shall all watch it together! To the TV!” He bounded off to the living room, scooping Sans up by the waist as he passed his brother. Averia found herself smiling at the antics of Papyrus, but stayed behind a little, placing a hand to her chest, above where her soul would be.

 

It was buzzing faintly in her chest, warm and content, something she had never felt before. Here, in Papyrus’ house with him and Sans, she felt  _ safe _ . There was nothing safe where she had come from, but now they treated her kindly and with gentle hands. She liked it here, with them. 

 

Papyrus called her name from the living room, catching Averia’s attention away from her thoughts. She quickly raced over to the couch to see that Papyrus was holding a spot for her next to him on the green cushions. She sat down and snuggled under the blankets before leaning into his side, a boney arm wrapping around her shoulders. Averia felt her soul warm up again, thumping softly, but happily, in her chest. For the first time that she could ever recall, she felt happy, even if for just a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To make up for no updates in a while here's a second update on the same day! Updates like this will not often happen, apologies everyone. Next chapter is going to be pretty fluffy, so be ready for that.
> 
> Come bother me on [my blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)!!


	18. A Day of Relaxing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy some fluff before we dive back into the plot of the story!

Papyrus pulled on Averia’s arm gently, making sure that she was following him closely to ensure that she wouldn’t get left behind. This was something he wanted to do since bringing her to their house on day one, and he had to wait almost two whole weeks before his next day off training to do it. His excitement was nearly tangible in the air as he bounced and tugged her along through the snowy forests of Snowdin. She seemed to be enjoying this as well, laughing and smiling at him.

 

“Papyrus, where are we going?” she asked, her head tilted at a slight angle. “You refused to tell me anything at all, and I don’t even know what we’re going to be doing. Sans told me you aren’t very good at keeping secrets, so could you please tell me what’s going on?” Papyrus let out a small upset sound at the accusation his brother had leveled against him, even though it was true. 

 

“I wanted to surprise you with this, so I will not tell you until we reach our destination!” he cried, though he knew that they were getting closer. Averia didn’t argue but continued to follow him as quickly as she could. He had to slow down a little because his legs were so much longer than hers. For a moment the skeleton considered picking her up to speed up the process. 

 

However, he was delighted to see the small mounds of snow he had created the night before stayed up, ready for them both today. Averia stopped behind him, as he let go of her hand to go and stand by his creations. He turned to face her and lifted his arms in delight, his eye sockets sparkling with joy.

 

“Tada!” he cried. “I’ve made a snow fort for you and me so that we can have a snowball fight together! It’s a lot more fun with others to fight together, but since you aren’t supposed to be seen all that much, we have to settle for just us!” He let out a laugh, putting his hands on his hip bones, beaming with pride at his little secret.

 

Averia took a look at all of the snowballs and mounds of snow piled up to protect them both from potential barrages of snow. Papyrus was a little unsettled by the silence and began to fiddle with his phalanges uncertainly.

 

“Do you… do you not like it?” he asked, looking at her with a touch of worry. Averia brought her eyes up to meet him, somewhat confused by both his reaction and the layout before her.

 

“What’s a snowball fight?”

 

Papyrus’ jaw dropped open, and he had to take a moment to compose himself before he responded, his mind whirling away. Has she _ never been in a snowball fight before? Nyeh! I shall have to fix that right away! The Great Papyrus will make this the best first snowball fight that has ever been! _

 

“Well,” he started. “A snowball fight is where two or more people get together, and they throw snowballs at each other! Like this!” To demonstrate, he picked up a snowball and gently tossed it at her, letting the snow plop against her arm and break apart. Averia squeaked at the sensation, hurriedly brushing the white powder off of her sleeve.

 

“It’s cold!” she cried out, making Papyrus laugh again. He picked up another snowball and prepared to throw it at her, and she dove behind the snow mound he had made for her before he had a chance to release it. For a moment, he stood there and laughed, but soon choked on his laugh as she had somehow managed to throw a snowball right between his teeth. Her giggles pierced the cold air, and Papyrus felt his soul hum in happiness.

 

“Prepare yourself, human!” he cried as though she were an actual enemy in this snowy battle. “For I, the Great Papyrus shall defeat you in the mounds of snow! You will be helpless against my attacks of snow, and- ACK!!” He was forced to cut himself off as another snowball came flying at him, and he barely dodged it in time. Averia was laughing pretty hard now, and he could see the mirth in her eyes from over her snow fort.

 

Papyrus stepped behind his snow mound and scooped up some snowballs of his own, throwing them at her with ease. Though he couldn’t see over her fortress all too easily, he could tell whenever he had landed a hit by the telltale cry of “Cold!” from close by. Averia, in turn, managed to land a few hits on his skull and chest, where he would let out a “Nyeh!” to let her know she got him. Time flew quickly like the snowballs the two continued to lob at each other, and laughter and happiness filled the forest. 

 

Soon, Papyrus noted that he was almost out of snowballs on his side of the fort. While he could easily make more, he decided against that and went for the slightly underhanded tactic he had meant to try for the past few minutes. He ceased his attacks on her and waited patiently until she had stopped as well.

 

“Papyrus?” her voice called to him, and he waited with bated breath, hoping that it would work out in his favor. Soon enough, he heard the crunching of the snow as she came over towards his snow fort, and he waited another moment more. Then….

 

“NYEH!!” With a mighty cry, he sprang over the snow fort, having compacted all of his snowballs into a giant clump in his hands. Averia was thrown entirely off guard and scrambled backward before Papyrus broke the cold snow over her, tackling her into the powder drifted up nearby. She yelped at the sudden wash of snow over her face but retaliated quickly, taking handfuls of snow and jamming it into his face. 

 

The two rolled around in the snow for a bit, tussling and laughing before they both lay stretched out on their backs breathlessly. Averia was giggling and panting, and Papyrus himself didn’t fare too much better, though he didn’t even really need to breathe. For a few moments, they laid there, enjoying the feel of the snow tickling their faces and enjoying the cold temperatures. Papyrus soon stood up and reached a hand out to Averia, helping her up off the ground.

 

“Come on! I have something else that we’re going to be doing today as well!” he said, picking her up quickly by her waist and hefting her onto his shoulders with ease. 

 

The poor girl let out a surprised noise at the sudden movement, then clung tightly to his skull, covering his eye sockets on accident. Papyrus let out a sound of annoyance, then moved one of his hands from her lower legs so that he could push her hands aside. She recoiled a bit as if she had burned herself, and began to mumble an apology to him.

 

“Sorry, Papyrus, I didn’t mean to-”

 

“It is quite alright!” he replied brightly, cutting off the painfully upset tone Averia had started to take on. “I should have given you a proper warning beforehand, now that I think about it. But now we can get started with my idea! Nyeh heh heh!”

 

With his vision now intact, he moved swiftly back into Snowdin and towards the other side, holding Averia’s legs firmly. He was humming softly as he walked, and for a moment, the whole town seemed to stop in time to allow for this peaceful moment. Papyrus continued to walk briskly through the town, passing by the house entirely. Averia turned her head to look back at it, then leaned down to Papyrus quickly.

 

“We passed the house, Papyrus,” she said, her voice colored with worry. Papyrus grinned even though she couldn’t quite see it. 

 

“Fear not, Averia,” he said as the two made their way out of the town. “We are not headed back to the house, but instead we are going somewhere else entirely! You will see!” Averia let out a soft hum and placed her cheek on the top of his skull, making the skeleton’s cheekbones flush with a bright orange color. He picked up the pace and quickly brought her towards Waterfall, then paused so she could take it in.

 

The gentle gasp above him made Papyrus’ soul thump with delight, and he set Averia down gently so she could see the wonders of Waterfall herself. She raced over to one of the pools instantly, kneeling to look at the reflective surface of the water, then to the echo flowers and back to the water again. Papyrus found her curiosity both fascinating and utterly adorable, though it did raise some concerns in the back of his skull.

 

_ There should have been plenty of this sort of thing up on the Surface, shouldn’t there? Why does she act as though she has never seen water like this? Or not know what a snowball fight is? Do those things not occur up there? Sans said he read about both in books about human history… _

 

Averia was dipping her hands into the water happily, her green eyes sparkling with a joy that Papyrus sadly had not seen in her before. She was swirling it around and playing like a babybones, though he had to admit it was fun to watch. He sat down next to her and let her enjoy the water, watching for anyone passing by, just in case. 

 

Suddenly, he heard a splash beside him, and he whipped his skull around to see that Averia had removed her shoes and was wading in the water. Additionally, she was jumping and kicking the water, laughing merrily as though there wasn’t a care in the world. Papyrus found himself laughing as well until a small wave of water hit him in the face. 

 

In an instant, he charged into the water as well and engaged in a full-on water war with Averia, both laughing and splashing each other until both got soaked through their clothes. Papyrus wrung out his scarf as he moved out of the puddle, a beaming smile still present in his expression. Averia trailed after him, trying and failing to get most of the water out of the hem of her borrowed sweater. 

 

Her teeth were chattering faintly, and Papyrus knew that it was time to get home so that both could thaw out correctly. He could bring her back here again another time to see the crystals and the actual waterfalls here, and it was starting to get darker anyways. The skeleton took a moment to survey the area, noting that there was no other monster in sight, thankfully.

 

As he turned to offer her another ride on his shoulders, he noticed that she had removed her sweater to squeeze out the water, back turned towards him as she faced a cave wall. While an orange blush began to coat his cheekbones as he realized there was  _ nothing _ under that sweater, he also could see her back in more detail than ever before. His soul twisted painfully in his ribcage the sight of her skin, and he couldn’t bring himself to look away for a moment.

 

The skin of her back was scarred, so much more than he thought skin could be. In some places, scars overlapped on top of each other, leaving angry and ragged lines or rough circles that looked like Venn diagrams. So much had scarred over that it was harder to find what  _ wasn’t _ scar tissue leftover from whatever it was she had experienced. It was soul-wrenching to see this, and whatever had caused it was intentional.

 

_ Whoever did this to her,  _ Papyrus thought to himself, clenching his hands into fists at a sudden burst of anger in his soul,  _ I will make sure that they  _ **_never_ ** _ touch her again. If they do, then they will have to answer to me for their actions. I will protect her. I  _ **_have_ ** _ to. _

Averia put her sweater back on swiftly when Papyrus cleared his non-existent throat, her face turning pink with embarrassment. He placed her back on his shoulders and started the trek back home, humming quietly as she clung to his skull. The tall skeleton made his steps even longer than usual to make sure that she wouldn’t freeze when they reached Snowdin. She was already shivering from the water fight, and the cold of the snow wasn’t helping any. 

 

Papyrus stepped inside their warm house and set Averia down by the door so that he could get her something else to wear. She was almost vibrating at this point, based on how badly she was shaking, and he felt a little bad for taking her to get cold. Humans were so much more fragile than he imagined them to be previously. He brought her a new sweater and pants to change into, then guided her to the bathroom so he could change clothes himself.

 

Once both of them were comfortable in their dry clothing, Papyrus had her sit on the couch in her blanket to warm up more. He joined her after a moment with his blanket, and they turned on the television to watch another one of Mettaton’s shows. Averia hummed happily as she began to warm up, and she turned to Papyrus with happiness in her eyes.

 

“Papyrus?” she said, and he hummed as he turned his head to show he was listening. “Thank you for a fun day out and showing me what a snowball fight was and the pretty water tonight. I had a lot of fun.” Papyrus beamed at her and let out his signature laugh.

 

“But of course! I am always willing to take you to explore the Underground if I have the time! All you have to do is ask, and I would be more than happy to take you around to see all the beauty it holds!” He pressed his teeth to her forehead in a moment of bravery, his soul thrumming with delight as he did so. Quickly he turned back to the television, hoping that she wouldn’t notice the orange blush spreading across his cheekbones. 

 

Averia touched the place his teeth had kissed on her forehead, her cheeks beginning to heat up at the touching gesture. Her face broke into an embarrassed smile as her soul buzzed happily in her chest. She brought the blanket up to hide her face a little more as she turned her gaze back to the show on the television screen. Even as she tried to focus on the show, she found herself distracted by that one little thing.

 

_ That was… that felt very nice. Thank you, Papyrus. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter contains hallucinations, panic attacks, and mentions of violence. Reader discretion is advised.
> 
> Another chapter is UP, AND I AM HAPPY!!! This one is mostly for fluffy purposes and as a little bit of relationship building.
> 
> Come bother me on [my blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)!!


	19. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter contains depictions of flashbacks, panic attacks, childhood abuse, blood, and violence. Reader discretion is highly advised. If you need to skip, stop reading at the line "though she stifled her sounds of pain.," and pick back up at the line "Suddenly, her body was being lifted from the ground..."

Averia adapted to her new environment at a pace she considered better than average. She already knew where to find the cups, where the regular food hid behind the mountains of pasta boxes, and the general schedule for each day. It wasn’t all too difficult, as Papyrus would explain it to her in great detail if she were awake to listen to it, which she always was.

 

Papyrus himself would wake up daily around five-thirty to go for a run, then return around six-thirty and start making breakfast. After that, he would either go to training with Undyne for two hours, then to his sentry station, or his station, then to Undyne’s. Gaster would leave for his lab, if he hadn’t spent the night there, sometime after seven-fifteen, and would return by six-thirty or seven. Papyrus would be home and making dinner by around the same time, and Sans was… Sans.

 

Averia got the impression that either Sans was as lazy as he seemed or that he was avoiding going out and doing other things on purpose. He would wake up between the hours of nine and, if they were lucky, eleven, then spend all his time either eating, on his phone, or sleeping. Most days, he also disappeared to Grillby’s bar, though he never was consistent enough, just going on a whim. It was strange, his brother and father both worked, so why didn’t he?

 

Individual days had turned into weeks since Averia had arrived at the house, and while she was comfortable sleeping on their couch, helping with chores and meal preparations, and generally keeping to herself, she couldn’t help but feel like something was off. There was a sneaking suspicion Averia had that she was being watched, though she spent most of her time alone. Papyrus had brushed that notion aside when she asked him, but her worries never really faded. If anything, they had worsened, but she had learned to contain them appropriately so that no one was the wiser. 

 

Additionally, her panic attacks, as Sans had called them, had become more frequent, though the intensity varied greatly. Some were in the middle of an activity, surprising her while trying to do chores or clean up something. More than one dish had suffered and broken from her hands either dropping them or seizing up around said plate. It started with something that would trigger a painful memory or something, her breathing would hitch, and it was all downhill from there.

 

Most times, Papyrus was able to get a hold of her quickly and calm her down, effectively ending the panic attack. Other times, Sans would call his brother on his phone and have him talk to her until she was able to pull herself out of it. Gaster rarely was a direct witness to any of these episodes, but he would stay back if he was near, knowing that she was less trusting of him than of the two brothers. 

 

Someone almost always was around to ensure that she was safe and would end up being okay. That was a luxury Averia had never really had before she had made it to the house here in Snowdin. Right now, however, four and a half weeks after she had begun to stay in the skeletons’ home, she was alone.

 

Her body was wrapped tightly in the blanket that Papyrus had provided for her way back when they had first gotten to know each other. Averia’s hands were wound into her choppy hair, her breathing heavy and uneven as she tried and failed to calm herself. The couch under her creaked with movement as she tugged viciously on her hair, though she stifled her sounds of pain.

 

_ Screaming voices, right into her ears, almost nonsensical. Slaps that landed on either side of her head simultaneously, causing her ears to pop and bleed. Blossoms of pain tearing through her skull as the slaps continued, even after the blood began to flow. _

 

Papyrus was asleep, and she couldn’t wake him up at a time like this, merely one-thirty in the morning, based off the clock. There was no need for him to come downstairs at all, as he had already done so much when she came here. Averia could feel the hot tears streaming down her cheeks, though she refused to let her breathing turn into sobs. 

 

She had already woken Papyrus up with her crying twice before, and while she had managed to pull herself together then, she wasn’t about to make it a third time. He had been so worried about her, and while she selfishly craved the positive attention, it wasn’t right for her to steal the precious hours he spent asleep. He barely slept as it was, though he had assured her multiple times that he didn’t need nearly as much sleep as Sans or she did.

 

_ A fist came into contact with her eye as she lay crying on the floor, awoken by a nightmare. They hadn’t liked it when she woke them up, and now she was being punished for it. A foot made contact with her stomach, forcing her to vomit up what little she’d had to eat just a few hours ago. Her face got shoved into the acidic, smelly puddle. _

 

Her breathing hitched again, and Averia quickly unwound a hand from her hair to bite down hard on her index finger. She couldn’t afford to make sound, not a single sound. One sound escaping was all it took for her to break down completely, and then she would be screaming. The pain wasn’t distracting her enough, so she continued to bite down until the taste of iron greeted her. 

 

A tremor ran through her body, and the urge to sob began to fade, so she removed the bleeding appendage from her teeth with a small amount of difficulty. Somehow this always managed to get her to keep calm, relatively so, until she was able to get help in one form or another.

 

_ She was biting her fingers, muffling her cries as her body trembled in a corner. Her arm was shattered, but making noise meant worse punishments, and they would surely fix it soon like they always did eventually. Blood poured from her mouth, and she was gagging on the taste, but there was no way she would let them hear her crying.  _

 

Averia pulled on her hair again, a few strands coming off in her hands, and she knew that it was only a matter of time before she started to break and make sound. It always happened, and someone  _ always _ heard it, no matter how hard she tried. There was only so much she could do before she broke, and she could already feel herself coming to the end of her rope.

 

With shaking limbs, she unwrapped herself from the blanket as best as she could, then tried to crawl her way into the kitchen. There was a medical kit in there, and she would be able to clean herself up, hopefully before anyone noticed. It would also put her a little further away from the balcony, so there was a chance no one would hear her when she broke.

 

_ Glass bottles with the stench of a strange liquid on them sliced her legs into a mess of bloodied ribbons of skin. It wasn’t deep enough to kill or for her to bleed out, but later, as she worked quietly trying to clean the injuries, her hands quivered. Blood everywhere, on her hands, staining her skin, dripping onto the tile floor of the bathroom. Glimmers of residual glass glinted through the mess of blood and skin. Her breathing grew tighter with each shard she pulled from her legs, and with each layer of flesh she tried to repair. _

 

Averia felt her legs and arms give out from under her, and her body fell to the floor with a dull thud, the blanket still half on her. She was shaking too hard to move, to  _ breathe _ , and suffocation from it all was pressing in. The things she was seeing kept flashing into and out of existence before her eyes, different parts of her body flared in pain. 

 

Her body curled in on itself on the carpeting, trying to shield herself from the pains she suffered. Against her own will, she felt her throat let out a choked sound, quiet enough, but more soon followed after it. The volume was building rapidly as well, and something in a small voice in her head started telling her terrible things.

 

**You will be punished for this, hurt, beaten, tortured, bruised. They’ll kill you for sure this time. Stupid, disgusting creature, could anyone genuinely think you are worth saving? They want you dead, no one cares, just like the ones before now. It doesn’t matter that you’re not up there anymore. You’re weak, and just making everyone miserable. You don’t even deserve to live.** **_D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E D I E-_ **

 

“Averia?” A soft voice barely registered in the back of her mind. She was full-on sobbing now, her body curling in even tighter to try and protect her from the invisible barrage of hatred. Averia tugged on her hair, again and again, her wide eyes pouring tears and seeing what wasn’t there. A strangled scream tore out of her throat just as a pair of hands landed gently on her back. She could hear another voice saying something, but the words no longer made any sense to her ears.

 

_ There was so much blood on the floor, and she couldn’t see the tiles anymore underneath the pooling liquid. A fist knotted in her hair, yanking her head around to slam it into a cabinet again and again. Stars flashed in front of her eyes, and she nearly vomited into the blood. Something scraped down her spine, and more blood began to form puddles under her. Make it stop… make it stop…. _

 

Suddenly, her body was being lifted from the ground and out of pure instinct, she began to writhe in whatever grip had her. The grip around her wasn’t like anything she had felt before, warm, soft, and encompassing her entire body. Somewhere in her mind, logic began to register like a dim candle in an ocean of darkness, telling her that this felt safer than anything else she had experienced before.

 

Regardless of that gentler voice, her mind swirled with vivid memories coming to her vision and blocking whatever she was supposed to be seeing in front of her. Something wrapped itself around her, holding her firmly but gently to a solid base. It was restraining her, and if she was restrained, that meant that she was going to end up punished. Averia wanted to lash out, to free herself from whatever it was that was going to hurt her, but a calm wave of energy came from the grip.

 

The energy was soothing, calling out to her soul to remind her where she was and to breathe. It was gentle and calming to her agitated state, and while she couldn’t feel the effects for a few moments, the energy persisted. She started to tense up, and immediately, there was a voice that seemed to speak to her soul while it washed over her gently. 

 

_ You are in Papyrus’ and Sans’ home, and you are safe here, _ it said. _ Those who had harmed you before are not here, and they cannot reach you. Breathe slowly so that you can return home. _

 

Averia still wanted to fight, her breath choked in her throat, but the waves of peace that flowed over her only intensified as she struggled. Her body began to relax, slowly but surely, and the visions distorted and morphed into a single, blurry image. A white skull looked down on her, its face filled with concern lodged in two black eye sockets. As she blinked, her vision grew clearer, and she recognized the skull as Papyrus, and not the face of death.

 

“Averia?” he said, his voice unbelievably soft for someone so energetic. She felt her chest constrict with the simple mention of her name, and more sobs fell from her lips as she clung to his chest. He held her close to him, and her soul hummed quietly with the proximity of his own. Papyrus was her lifeline at this moment, and she feared if she let go, then she would drown in her nightmares.

 

While Papyrus certainly wasn’t planning on being woken up before his usual time this morning, something in his soul had awoken him, telling him that Averia was distressed. It had been getting stronger notions about her mental and emotional wellbeing the more time he spent with her, and frankly, it scared him. He wasn’t sure about how this was happening, but he knew that something had changed deep within his soul.

 

As he was lying awake in his racecar bed, trying to figure out why in Asgore’s name he was awake, he heard a small sound from the living room. In an instant, he shot out of bed and opened his door to see what was wrong, his soul twisting in unease. The sounds grew louder and louder, and he placed it immediately as crying, which only served to tighten the pain in his soul more. Sans had opened his door as well, confusion in his eye sockets, but Papyrus was already bolting downstairs to see Averia before he could ask anything.

 

As Papyrus descended the stairs, he had called out to Averia, but she made no response to him. She was lying on the floor with her blanket half on-half off, her hand and mouth bloodied, and was sobbing violently. He rushed to her side, watching as she curled into a ball on the floor. Papyrus was about to lay his hands on her shoulders to turn her on her back when she began screaming. 

 

“What’s going on?” Sans’ voice cried out as he too rushed to Averia’s side, though he hung back some. “Paps, what’s she screaming about?” Papyrus shook his head, not knowing what could be going through her mind at the moment. He carefully tried to turn her over, but she resisted his touch, making him shuffle over to the other side so he could get a better look.

 

Her eyes were glassy, and she was most likely having a severe panic attack if the past two weeks of similar behavior had given him any clues. Papyrus’ hands trembled slightly as he picked her up, noting that she was fighting him as he did. Reflexively, his soul called out to her, sending a wave of calm energy towards her in the hopes that she would settle down. For a moment, his soul quivered, feeling the full brunt of her agony as she saw things that weren’t there.

 

“Averia, please, it’s not real, it’s not here,” he said, willing her soul to let go of the pain, if only temporarily, so she could relax. Her body began to tense, and before he could even think of anything else, Papyrus clutched her a little closer to his ribcage and spoke to her as gently as he could.

 

“You are in Papyrus’ and Sans’ home, and you are safe here _,_ ” he murmured, noting that her struggling had slowed considerably even though she was still tense. “Those who had harmed you before are not here, and they cannot reach you. Breathe slowly so that you can return home.” For a soul-wrenching moment, neither Papyrus or Sans said a thing, both holding a breath they didn’t need as they watched Averia. After what felt like a short eternity, the tension in her body started to ebb away, and both brothers relaxed as well. 

 

Papyrus kept his gaze fixated on her face, watching her blink away the haze of whatever she had seen. Averia’s green eyes looked up at him blearily, the tears that had been pouring from them now only remaining as tear tracks on her cheeks. His soul felt calmer now, and hers was no longer in a state of panic.

 

“Averia?” he questioned softly, trying not to startle her. She blinked at him, then burst into tears again, clinging to his nightshirt, wailing pitifully. His soul thumped in his ribcage sorrowfully, and he carried her into the kitchen to clean her bleeding hand, hoping it would help. As he sat her on the counter, she grabbed his shirt tighter, insisting on not being let go. Sans trailed in behind him, a worried expression on his skull.

 

“Averia, you need to let go, I have to get the medical supplies to clean your hand,” he said, trying to pry her fingers from the fabric gently. If anything, she only wound herself in tighter with her good hand, refusing to release the cloth. Sans stepped over and placed a hand on his brother’s upper back, patting it gently.

 

“I got it, bro, you keep her calm,” he said, suppressing a yawn. “She doesn’t seem too keen on moving from your shirt right now anyways.” Papyrus glanced down at the human girl shuddering in his grasp and pulled her close again. For whatever reason, he was reluctant to let her go as well, even to help clean up the wound on her hand that looked suspiciously like a bite mark.

 

Sans shuffled around the kitchen, digging through a few cabinets before he produced the medkit and brought it back to where Papyrus and Averia were. The taller skeleton accepted the small box and started to clean and bandage her finger appropriately. Sans rubbed one of his eye sockets, then leaned against the counter next to the two, observing. 

 

Papyrus’ hands were gentle as he rubbed the cleansing antiseptic into the bite marks, murmuring soft condolences to Averia as she whined in pain. She was still clinging to him tightly, her free hand wrinkling the shirt Papyrus had worn to bed that night. Sans could make out an outline of his brother’s soul, and the human’s as well. There were very faint tendrils of soft colored light that, if one wasn’t looking for they would miss entirely, reaching out to one another.

 

_ I’m certainly no expert on souls,  _ Sans thought to himself. _ Not mine, not other monsters’, and certainly not human souls. But this reaction between my brother and Averia makes it more and more apparent that something more profound has been established between the two. I’m just not entirely sure what that would be…. _

 

“Well,” Sans said, finally breaking the quiet with a stretch. “I’m gonna go try and sleep some more. You two be careful now, and make sure that you don’t get too stressed, okay Averia? Both of us are here for you if you need anything at all.” Sans gently pointed a finger at her, giving her a wink to let her know that he wasn’t upset with her.

 

“O-okay, Sans,” she replied, giving him a very unconvincing smile and a shaky wave. “And thank you… for coming to check on me.” Sans gave a small shrug in response but grinned anyway. 

 

“Not a problem, but Paps?” His brother turned to face him curiously at the mention of his name. “Perhaps it’s best if she doesn’t end up by herself again tonight, m’kay? Take good care of your little human friend.” Sans took a shortcut back up to his room before either one could respond to his statement, but he recalled the bright orange blush that had come over his brother’s cheekbones as he spoke with a tinge of delight.

 

“T-there you go, Averia,” Papyrus said, wrapping her finger quickly to try and lighten the mood Sans had created. “I… I suppose that I should be getting you back to bed now that everything's alright. And while I would  _ like _ to find an alternative solution, I agree that you should not be alone tonight. Would you like to come spend the night in my room?”

 

“Yes, please,” Averia said timidly, not even caring that she would be mortified later. Papyrus gently scooped her off of the counter, and she leaned into his ribcage gratefully as he held her close. He took her upstairs and into his room, closing the door behind him, his soul thumping in a bout of nervousness.

 

_ She’s going to be  _ **_in my room,_ ** _ even after all the things have been happening. Why am I so nervous all of a sudden? The Great Papyrus should not be feeling nervous! And yet… I also continue to feel like she belongs here more and more….  _

 

Papyrus carefully laid her in his bed, laying her blanket back over her, then settling in beside her, though he gave her plenty of room. She seemed a bit uncomfortable at sharing a bed, but settled down anyway, her eyes growing heavy with sleep. Papyrus couldn’t help but smile a little at her relaxed state, thankful that she was able to be calmer now.

 

“Goodnight, Averia,” he said softly. “If you need anything at all, please do not hesitate to ask me for it. I would be most honored to help you.” She let out a soft yawn and nodded, nuzzling down into her blanket again, and Papyrus’ soul hummed in delight.

 

“Goodnight, Papyrus.” With that, he allowed his mind to drift back into the throes of sleep, his dreams filled with a soft and gentle golden glow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who had to skip, Averia remembered her past life, what it was like on the Surface for her. It's little glimmers of abuse that get a little graphic, so I won't name any specifics. She bit her finger to keep quiet, drawing blood, and Papyrus came to pull her out of it.
> 
> That aside, more plot has been introduced!
> 
> Come bother me on [my blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)!!


	20. Asking Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys finally ask the questions they've been meaning to ask for quite a while. The truth, in part, is revealed.

Gaster reviewed all of his notes in his lab, thankful that he had set up more cameras on one of the rare occasions when the human had gone outside with Sans. It was undoubtedly beneficial to his studies to have all of the footage from several nights ago, where the human had been escorted into Papyrus’ room for the night. 

 

She- no,  _ it _ seemed to appreciate being with someone in the wake of a panic attack, and Papyrus had naturally latched onto its needs. The camera in his son’s room had felt unnecessary at first, but this made it feel much more useful, especially since he had noticed the two coming into contact throughout the night. Now Gaster was sure that he had made the right choice, even though he was deliberately breaching his son’s privacy.

 

Their souls seemed to be working in tandem with each other, pulsating gently in synchronization as both slept. If Averia’s soul twisted or became troubled for any reason, Papyrus’ would respond and send soothing energy to calm it. Gaster was thrilled that he had created a filter that could “see” souls without the need for the souls being out of the body. Should he have neglected that part of the process, this would have all been unseen to him.

 

Gaster had conjured several magical hands to write down notes and to adjust the monitor’s settings as need be. He watched the two sleep, also noting the soft tendrils of colored light that seemed to reach out from their souls to the other. Their souls wished to bond, but neither party was ready for it mentally, so the souls were hesitant. 

 

_ Fascinating _ . 

 

He felt another one of those odd tugs at his soul, one of multiple that had begun to occur shortly after setting up his monitoring system in his home. Gaster brushed it aside as he had before, and took a closer look into the footage. The soft coils of light were dancing around each other, getting close but never making contact, always pulling away before they could touch.

 

_ Both of their souls are ready for a soul bond, but the relationship they hold is far too delicate for that to be initiated. Unless I force it, they will take their time to create a bond. I have patience enough for there to be a deepening of their relationship.  _

 

Gaster spent a good portion of the night merely reviewing footage the two of them on that particular night and reviewing past footage before he decided to call it quits and head home. By the clock on his phone, it was nearing four in the morning, so it left him just enough time to get to the house and get some coffee before Papyrus woke up again. He stood from his chair and stretched, allowing his bones to creak and pop faintly as he changed his position. 

 

On the way home after getting a boat ride, Gaster ambled, processing all of the information he had gathered so far about the human’s soul. It was capable of creating a strong soul bond and had attached itself to a monster soul, something that he was sure had never happened before. The color was still gray around the edges, but he had observed some fading of that color into more of the healthy glow souls were supposed to have. 

 

_ Her- no,  _ **_its_ ** _ soul is responding well to Papyrus’ own and has become healthier and stronger. At this rate, I may be able to push forward in my plans a little faster and get to where I need to go in this experiment. I might even be able to get it done before the end of next year at the current rate this seems to be going. _

 

Quite pleased with himself, Gaster came into the house quietly and closed the door behind him. He wanted to make sure that the human’s soul was able to subconsciously bond with his son as much as possible, even though it irked the scientist slightly. Their bond seemed to be creating a healing power over the gray of the human’s soul, which was utterly necessary for the experiment. Additionally, as soulmates, the two had been predestined for each other, and he could not tamper with fate.

 

Gaster slipped off his shoes and coat and put them away quietly, intending to shuffle into the kitchen to make a few pots of coffee for another day and nights worth of work. As he made his way into the smaller space, he felt a tinge of magic behind him and turned. Sans had teleported down from his room, having not slept since the human had awoken, his arms folded in front of him.

 

“We need to talk,” he said bluntly, both of his eye-lights extinguished. Gaster heaved a small sigh, and returned to his making of coffee, hoping that it would be brief. He had watched the human on his cameras for the past three nights in a row with about six hours of sleep to cover each night, so saying he was exhausted was an understatement.

 

“I realize you have a lot of questions,” Gaster said as he set the coffee pot on and measured the grounds carefully. Sans slammed a hand on the counter next to him to get his attention, effectively making his father flinch a little.

 

“Like hell, I have questions!” he hissed, mindful of the two sleeping beings upstairs. “Why in Asgore’s name did you bring the human here? She’s only going to be a nuisance to all of us, and she’s in  _ more  _ danger here than at the lab! Furthermore, what the  _ hell _ is she doing to Papyrus? She’s made him act all weird, and now something is going on with his soul! You’ve been keeping all of us in the dark about this, and while I can get why Papyrus is out of the loop,  **_I_ ** want  _ answers _ , old man!”

 

Gaster ran a hand down his tired face, trying to keep himself in check long enough to not strangle his eldest son so that he could continue his work. He loved Sans, really truly did, but sometimes he was too observant for his good. Thankfully, the scientist had been anticipating this confrontation and had his answers ready.

 

Slowly, he moved over to the kitchen table, easing himself onto the wooden chair while Sans did the same thing opposite him. Gaster folded his hands in front of him, noting the angry posture Sans held despite his exhaustion. It appeared as though he, too, were losing sleep over this predicament regarding the human and his brother.

 

“What do you want to know first?” the scientist said, figuring it was the best way to start this entire ordeal. Sans didn’t hesitate to speak his mind.

 

“Why is the human here in our home, eating our food? She was perfectly fine at the labs, wasn’t she?” Gaster let out a small sigh. While the answer most simply put was, well, simple, the reasoning behind it was a very delicate and complicated manner. He couldn’t just say his whole idea outright because Papyrus might be listening, or the human or Sans could run and tell them both, ruining everything. He looked his son in his eye sockets, careful of what he said.

 

“The human needed a change in environment,” he said, measuring his words with expert care. “The conditions of the lab, while a more stable and, as you have pointed out, safer place, it was not flourishing in the most viable manner. Humans need something that is not four metallic walls and isolation to thrive. They need to have some measures of freedom. My experiment requires that the human has to thrive and recover from whatever they may have experienced on the Surface to work.” 

 

“That doesn’t explain why she’s here,” Sans barked, his fists clenching under the table. “Whatever she’s done to Papyrus is getting  _ worse _ because she’s here in the house! Why couldn’t we get her a separate room or put her up in the shed with some accommodations?”

 

“Would that not be the same as putting her in the lab?” Gaster questioned, his tone icy. Sans made no response to that comment but instead countered with his other question.

 

“What is she doing to Paps?” Gaster tilted his head slightly, giving the impression that he didn’t quite understand. “Oh come on, old man, you know what I’m talking about, don’t deny it. She’s been doing something with his soul and making him all weird. He’s been all strange around her, flustered and unsure, and he is  _ never _ unsure of himself! I’ve also been seeing his soul, even just a few weeks ago.” 

 

Gaster started to open his mouth when he heard a sound from the kitchen entryway. Both skeletons at the table whipped their heads around to see Papyrus, rubbing one of his eye sockets, standing in the doorway. Sans fumbled for words, trying to explain himself, but Papyrus sat down next to him, placing a hand on his brother’s shoulder. 

 

“I wish to know the same things as well, Dad,” he said, turning his head to Gaster. “The human has a strange effect on me, and I want to know why all of this is happening and what we can do about it.” With both of his sons looking at him expectantly, Gaster couldn’t help but feel the urge to laugh out loud, though he restrained himself.

 

“The answer is quite simple, though I do not think either of you are ready for what the answer may bring,” he said, unfolding his hands as the coffee finished preparing on the counter. He moved to go fill up a mug and drink from it, though neither Sans nor Papyrus moved from the table.

 

“Just hurry up and tell us already,” Sans grumbled irritatedly. Gaster took a look at his youngest son for a moment, noting that his soul was already aglow from merely talking about the human. 

 

_ It seems that their souls have bonded a little more than I thought initially, how could I not have noticed it sooner? If Sans could see it a while back, then there most certainly has been more progress than I assumed. I must conduct further research on this before it gets to a point I cannot keep up with. _

 

Gaster took a sip of his delicious mug of coffee before he bothered to respond. Based on how this conversation was already headed, he needed caffeine in his system to keep up with the barrage of questions bound to occur. A small sigh passed his teeth, and he hesitantly lowered the mug for just a moment to take a good look at both of his sons.

 

“They are soulmates,” he said plainly and returned to his coffee. Papyrus’ mandible flopped downwards, and if Sans’ wasn’t magically fused shut, his would have as well. The older skeleton of the two at the table let out a short laugh through a suddenly tense grin and started fiddling with where his ears would be if he had them on his skull.

 

“I’m sorry, I must’ve heard you wrong because it’s late and I’m tired, but I thought you said they were-”   
  


“Soulmates, no, you heard me correctly, Sans,” Gaster said casually, as though he was asked if Waterfall had water. Sans blinked at him, and his eye-lights went dark for a moment. His gaze dropped down to the table, and he was thinking very hard about what he had just heard.

 

“I thought soulmates didn’t exist, or that they were just a fairytale that you told to babybones,” he muttered, turning his head to the table. Gaster hummed softly and set the coffee mug aside for the moment on the countertop.

 

“No, they are real, and it was actually quite easy to tell,” he said. “Papyrus was immediately drawn to the human, even before meeting them and was unable to resist urges to be near them, is that not correct, Papyrus?” His younger son nodded mutely, too stunned to make a sound, and Gaster continued to speak.

 

“The two were instantly drawn to each other,” he explained, swirling coffee around his mug. “Their souls were made for one another. As such, they felt the need for close proximity for a while. Shorter amounts of time are what is required at first, and typically one of the souls is naturally more dependent upon the other. In this case, it would be the human’s soul depending upon Papyrus’.”

 

“As time wears on, however, the souls start to crave for more attention, thus requiring more time close to each other,” Gaster hummed, glancing upwards towards where he guessed the human was resting. “This is done as a way to prepare souls to bond together permanently.”

 

Gaster took a moment to pause and sip his coffee once again, eyeing his two sons’ reactions. Papyrus had not moved and was still looking like he was in shock, his soul gleaming faintly from under his shirt. Sans was staring at the table blankly, and Gaster knew that the metaphorical gears in his skull were whirling like mad. 

 

“On the day that the human experienced a traumatic event,” he continued, “namely the one where h- its face was cut open, I was testing to see how far along the connection between their souls had progressed. It was quite fascinating really, as the bond seemed to amplify Papyrus’ magical capabilities and stamina.” Gaster noted how Papyrus stiffened at the mention of the incident, though the youngest skeleton said nothing.

 

“As I watched it in pain, its soul cried out, and his soul responded to the human’s soul,” the scientist continued, carefully probing the issue. “I could see it, and it had almost floated out of his chest in front of him. There is a unique connection that was created between him and the human, and I want to study it further. Even now, his soul is glowing, just at the mention of it.”

 

Papyrus took a hasty glance down at his ribcage to see that there was indeed a faint glowing outline of his soul, the light muted by the fabric of his shirt. He put his hand over it in embarrassment, forcing himself to calm down enough to put the glow out.  _ How had I not noticed my soul doing that? How long had it been glowing like that?  _ Gaster chuckled at his son’s reaction to his words, as the embarrassment was plastered all over his youngest’s expression for him to see. 

 

“Now, does that satisfy all of what you wanted to know?” he queried, taking another sip from his coffee mug. Silence filled the kitchen, and both of Gaster’s sons had nothing to say in the moment. A twinge of relief filled the scientist’s ribcage, though he took great pains to make sure that he remained as outwardly emotionless as possible. 

 

_ They don’t know how to handle the information given them, but that doesn’t matter much now. I have bought myself enough time to keep them at a distance to make progress, and that is all I care about, whether they have all the answers or not. Speaking of making progress…. _

 

He drained his current mug of coffee, set it on the counter to be cleaned later, and started heading for the front door. As he pulled on his coat, he glanced back to see both of his sons still sitting at the table, though now they were watching him. He could see the unanswered questions in their eye sockets, and how badly they were seeking other answers, but now was not the time for that. 

 

“I have more work to be done at the lab,” he said, adjusting his sleeves carefully. “I should be home tonight for dinner, regardless of that. I look forward to what you come up with, Papyrus. Have a good day, you two.” With that, he stepped into the cold and vanished out of the house, leaving behind more confusion than settlement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm back with another chapter!! This one allows a little more of a look into the way that Gaster thinks, but there will be more of him in later chapters.
> 
> Come bother me on [my blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)!!


	21. Terror Reaching In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Averia makes some small discoveries about herself. Sans decides it's time for a chat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter contains mentions of blood, violence, flashbacks, and past abuse. Reader discretion is advised.

Averia couldn’t put a lot of things into words yet. With a limited vocabulary and still so much to learn under Papyrus and Sans’ tutelage, she barely knew how to talk about things she liked or disliked. What she did know, however, was that Papyrus had started to act strangely around her, and if she didn’t know better, she would say he was trying to be anywhere but where she was all the time. Sans wasn’t much better, but any conversation with him was awkward anyways.  

 

It was about three months after Averia had arrived in Snowdin, and she was starting to get antsy about staying again. Sure, neither of the skeletons had said she  _ wasn’t _ welcome here anymore, but now it felt like they were getting ready to ignore her entirely. This way of acting was terrible; it always was awful, and it was never anything good. 

 

_ If they begin to ignore me, they’ll start down the same path as the  _ **_others_ ** _ did…. _

 

She did her best to shake the thought away and instead went to try and clean up the kitchen of a mess Papyrus had made for dinner yesterday. The tomato stains were surprisingly hard to scrub out of the countertops, despite the surface being a finished stone of some sort. Averia had to sit on the counter and scrub as hard as she could, leaning her full body weight into the movements to even begin to make a difference.

 

As she worked away, she noticed that her hair was falling in her eyes, something that had never happened before. She paused and sat up, raising a hand to catch the lock between her fingers. It was a dark shade of brown, and long enough to reach down to her chest. Averia found her hands winding carefully and delicately into her hair, moving it to the front so that she could look at it.

 

_ It’s… it’s never been like this before, not that I can remember. I like the color, but I don’t know if I want it to be in my face like this. Maybe I can find a way to make it shorter? _

 

Averia looked around the kitchen for something that would tie her hair back, to no avail. Then she spotted the almost unused knife set on the counter, resting in its wooden block in a corner. She crawled over to it and pulled out one of the blades, letting the kitchen light glint off of the metallic surface. Holding such an object in her hands made her hands feel odd, but the weight was strangely soothing.

 

_ This might work to get rid of it…. I’ll just… I’ll treat it the way that Papyrus cuts up his vegetables for spaghetti. It’s about the same, isn't it? _

 

Averia grabbed a glass from the cabinet to use as a pseudo-mirror so she could see what she was doing. Carefully, she slid off of the counter and landed on the floor, her stomach beginning to twist into knots. After she made sure she could see what she was doing, she pulled her hair tight to the side, lifted the knife a little, and….

 

_ A fleshy hand wrapped itself into her hair at the roots, seizing them roughly and tugging her upwards. Her head began to ache fiercely, and she could feel the rough sawing motions of a blade against her scalp, scratching at the skin and severing the hairs. The knife was dull, catching and pulling on every strand of hair, and consequently leaving painful nicks. Small mounds of hair formed at her feet, chunky and uneven, and blood began to speckle the ground as she screamed and cried. _

 

A searing pain filled Averia’s foot, and without meaning to, she screamed, immediately clapping her hands over her mouth out of instinct. She blinked away tears of pain to see that she had dropped the knife, and it was now sticking out of her right foot, though it didn’t seem very securely in the flesh. It looked as though she could pull it out herself, but her blood was already spilling all over the tiled floor.

 

The telltale sound of a teleport came from right next to her, and although Averia was in pain, she knew that Sans would be upset. She was bleeding on the floor, and she had gotten herself into trouble, why wouldn’t he be angry? So, she tried to run, but the knife in her foot greatly hindered that, and she ended up only managing to shuffle a few feet.

 

“Kiddo, what’s- oh stars that’s bad…,” Sans said, kneeling next to her to try and assess the wound. “This is gonna hurt, stay still for a moment, though, and I can get this all fixed up, okay? Just don’t move, I’m gonna count to three. One… two….”

 

Without further warning, Sans quickly yanked the knife out of her foot, then brought his hands up to the wounded area. Averia yelped, her hands still over her mouth, but she didn’t move away. Green magic glowed on the palms of Sans’ hands as he tried to seal up the wound as best as he could, though he knew Papyrus would be better at it anyways. This healing job, mediocre as it was, would be enough for a few hours, at least until the taller skeleton could make it back from his sentry post tonight.

 

_ But now that I have you here, alone… I can talk to you about what I’ve meant to for a long time. And I don’t care if you and Paps are soulmates, this has to be said to you kiddo. No hard feelings, eh? _

 

“Say, Averia,” Sans said, standing up from kneeling and putting his hands back into his hoodie pockets. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about souls, would you?”

 

“Souls?” the girl parroted back to him, tilting her head to the side. “I don’t think so. Papyrus has only talked about them once or twice. He didn’t tell me anything really, except that they’re super important to monsters and humans. Why?” Sans let out a chuckle, and despite his usual grin being present on his face, he suddenly appeared a lot more menacing. Averia shivered unconsciously and took a step back away from him.

 

“Well,” Sans said, stepping forward to close the distance between them. “A soul is the entirety of one’s being. Your soul is who you are, through and through, and it’s the same for both monsters and humans. And they’re pretty personal, real intimate stuff.”

 

Sans took another step forward, backing Averia right up against the counter. She shuddered at how intense his glare had suddenly become, and now that he was practically cornering her, she was beginning to feel like she needed to run. Fear locked her legs into place, and at this point, they were shaking so severely that Averia wasn’t even sure she could go anywhere. She slid down the side of the cabinets, sitting weakly on the tiled floor, and Sans now towered over her menacingly.

 

“So when you decide to play around with souls, that’s a real serious deal, you see?” His voice was tight, and his smile had become strained and plastered falsely to his face. “Now, Papyrus has always been a happy guy, and his soul has been safe and protected the whole time he’s lived here. But then, a human fell into the Underground, a little, tiny human who had marks all over their body. Paps was so excited about it, too, and couldn’t wait to meet them. And now?”

 

Sans leaned into Averia’s face, his eye-lights wholly gone from his sockets, giving him a terrifying appearance. A whimper escaped from her throat, and Sans chuckled darkly, his grin stretching a touch more.

 

“ _ He’s not the same anymore _ ,” Sans hissed, his tone suddenly threatening. “Sure, he’s  _ basically _ the same guy, but there have been some changes in his demeanor that I noticed. He’s not as loud as before, he’s careful almost to a fault, and now he’s making sure everything in this house is as safe as it can be. Just because of one little thing. What’s the thing behind all of this, you say? What could possibly cause him to change in this manner? That’s easy….”

 

“ **_I T ‘ S  Y O U . . . ,_ ** ” Sans growled right in front of Averia, and if she had any strength in her body, she would have taken flight out of the room. Again, her body froze, unable to respond to her urge to flee, just like it had done many times before. A strange weight suddenly filled her chest, pressing her further into the floor, holding her motionless and causing her to yelp. Sans’ left eye was now ablaze with a flaming blue and yellow light, staring her down with a rage she had never seen in him.

 

“So let me get something set straight with you, okay kiddo?” Sans’ smile was tense now, more of a threat than a friendly gesture. “I don’t care what you are to him, no matter what my dad says, I don’t care about how you feel about him, or if you think he’s the best monster alive. If you even  _ think  _ about hurting him in any way, shape, or form,  **_Y O U  A R E  G O N N A  H A V E  A  B A D T I M E,  G O T  I T ?_ ** ”

 

Averia hastily nodded, the terror she was feeling preventing her from even speaking a word. Sans’ menacing grin eased, but only slightly, and his eye-lights returned, the heavy pressure on her chest releasing. He stood up, and took a step back, giving her some space, his hands still shoved into his pockets like nothing happened. She wasn’t buying it, not for a single second, that he was relaxed now.

 

“Good,” he said, his voice returning to the careless manner it usually carried. “I’m glad we could have this talk together. I’ll see you around, ‘kay? I’m going to Grillby’s” With that, there was the sound of a teleport, and he disappeared. Averia remained on the floor, trembling and gasping for air, uncertain as to how she got into this mess.

 

_ That’s why he’s been upset with me. He thinks I’m going to hurt Papyrus in some way! Does Papyrus believe the same thing? Is that why he’s been avoiding me? I… I can’t stay here if I’m going to be a danger to him! I don’t understand why they would keep me here if I’m going to hurt someone…. I need to get out, and I have to leave here. I’m… I’m not wanted anymore, and I have to go…. _

 

Averia forced her legs to stand and hold her weight, though she knew that the tremors running through them would make it difficult. Surprisingly, she was able to get up and start moving, despite her shaking. As she stood, she began to feel the tears that she had been holding back start falling down her cheeks, sobs racking her body. Then, she hesitated, a new thought suddenly occurring to her. 

 

_ Where will I go…? I don’t even know a safe way to get out of here, except to Waterfall, and that was with Papyrus’ help. Anywhere is better than here, though… But where can I even go? … It doesn’t matter, I need to get out. _

 

She scooped up her shoes from the living room and hurriedly stuffed them on her feet before she returned to the kitchen to stuff what little food she could fit into her pockets. After turning around to look at the house she had wanted to call home a final time, she walked over to the front door. Her hand hesitated over the doorknob, uncertainty coiling through her soul like a snake, ready to strike.

 

Before she could think too hard about it, Averia pulled the door open and stepped outside, slamming it shut behind her. For a moment, she stood there and scrubbed away the tear tracks on her cheeks, trying to calm her breathing. The realization of her running away hit her as she was standing there, and immediately she wanted nothing more than to go back inside merely. 

 

_ This was a bad idea, and I should go back inside and wait for Papyrus to come home so we can talk about what’s been going on. I shouldn’t leave. I need to stay here. I’ll be the safest here at the house, in Snowdin. _

 

Averia cast a glance over to her right, seeing Grillby’s bar just a few minutes walk away. Sans would be there, doing whatever it was when he visited that place.  _ He _ made it undeniably clear that he intended to try and protect Papyrus, even if it meant plowing through her. The thought alone made a shudder course through Averia’s body.

 

_...No… I can’t stay here. I have to get out of here before Sans realizes that I’m gone and before Papyrus and the Doctor come home as well. If they recognize what I’m trying to do, they both will be angry with me, more so than they have been lately. I  _ **_have_ ** _ to do this, and now I can’t turn back. _

 

Averia stepped off the small porch, her heart pounding with adrenaline, and her soul screaming at her to stop and turn around. Ignoring the insistence of her soul, she turned left, keeping her head down as to be recognized as little as possible. Her steps crunched in the snow as she started walking, then running, away from the skeletons’ house, tears streaming down her face anew.

 

She ran as fast as she could towards Waterfall, silently hoping that the skeletons would be able to forgive her for her actions. Even the thought of how Papyrus would be saddened by her actions made Acveria’s soul twist up in anguish. Her soul was crying out to stop and to return to the house, but she refused to listen to it. Instead, she pushed on harder, forcing herself to keep moving out of the town, despite the growing ache in her chest. Sobs heaved their way out of her throat as she tried to make her way out of the town.

 

_ Papyrus, I’m sorry that I had to leave and I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you. But I have to do this so that you can be safe. Sans would hurt me, and I might hurt you if I stay at all. I want you to be okay, more than anything else. Please, forgive me…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Consistent uploads? Who's that?
> 
> But here is another chapter! We are getting further into the plot and honestly guys, I'm super stoked, I've been writing this story for almost a year now.
> 
> Come bother me on [my blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)!!


	22. Sorting Out Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans messed up bad. He and Papyrus have a talk about the recent events.

Papyrus found himself distracted on his sentry, patrolling for whatever reason, his soul telling him something was wrong with Averia. The thought buzzed around in his skull like a Whimsun, and he found himself needing to know of her status. While he was unable to leave his job to check on her, he sent a quick text to Sans to make sure that she was alright. After waiting a whole minute and receiving no response, the tall skeleton began to worry a lot more. 

 

_ Even as lazy as Sans is, there’s no reason for him to delay in responding to me! He is usually excellent about taking the time to look at my texts and tell me if anything was wrong.  _

 

“Perhaps he just left his phone to charge, o-or perhaps the battery is dead!” Papyrus said aloud, hoping to convince himself. “Yes, that must be it! Sans would never fail to text the Great Papyrus back promptly!” He let out a laugh and held a confident pose, but soon dropped it afterward, the uneasy feeling in his soul not abating as he wanted it to.

 

_ I must return home immediately after I have finished my patrol for the evening to see what the matter is. Averia has to be alright, I know it. _

 

Papyrus started heading back on his patrol, checking on all of his traps a final time in the snow to make sure that they weren’t covered up. His pace was a little quicker than usual, and he bounded back to his station, only hesitating for a few moments when he felt his phone buzzing. Sans was calling him, and he answered hastily, though he was relieved that he would get news about the goings-on at their home.

 

“Sans!! Is everything alright at the house?? I was feeling a bit worried about Averia and I… I wanted to know if she’s okay?” Papyrus questioned immediately upon hearing the call go through. Sans let out a laugh, but it sounded a little strained and tense, making Papyrus worry all the more for both his brother and Averia.

 

“Yeah, bro, everything’s good here, why do you ask?” Sans replied. “I was talking to Averia just a few minutes ago, and then I went over to Grillby’s to get some food. She’ll be fine for a few minutes while I get something to-”

 

“SANS!!” Papyrus boomed into the receiving end of his phone. “You should have stayed with her at the house the whole time!! Why did you leave the house to go and get something from that grease trap for food?? She needs to be watched over so that none of the Royal Guard comes by to take her away!”   
  


“Geez Paps,” Sans sighed. “Look, I’ll head back now and put her on the phone so that you can talk to her yourself, okay?” There was a shuffling sound in the background as Sans moved around, and some speaking that Papyrus couldn’t quite make out. He tapped his foot impatiently, then heard the front door opening and his brother calling for Averia through the phone. Silence followed.

 

“...  **_Shit_ ** ,” Sans’ voice was strained, and Papyrus immediately began running straight for the house, his soul twisting in agony. “Uh, sorry about the swear, Paps, but... um, we may have a slight issue here at the house-”

 

“ _ WHERE IS SHE, SANS?? _ ” Papyrus cried out, feeling his soul’s unease spike rapidly into abject terror. “She  _ has _ to be in the house somewhere, Sans, she can’t have just left, so  _ WHERE IS SHE??? _ ” 

 

“Bro, calm down, everything’s fine, I just-” Papyrus cut off his brother’s words by bolting into the house, slamming the door open roughly into the wall. Sans jumped at his brother’s sudden appearance, fumbling his phone for a second before he stuffed it away in his pocket.

 

“Papyrus, I-”

 

“ **WHERE IS AVERIA, SANS** ,” Papyrus said, his voice deadly severe but trembling at the same time, betraying his real emotions. He saw a bead of sweat appear on the side of Sans’ skull, and the shorter skeleton looked away from him. Fear coiled tightly around Papyrus’ soul like a vice, taking hold of it and squeezing it tightly. 

 

Without waiting for a response, Papyrus took off, tearing through the house with worry filling every ounce of his bones. He checked everywhere he could think of, from the laundry room, to the bathroom, and even under every bed in the house. Every single space, save for some non-monster related dust, was empty and lacking of a particular human’s presence.

 

His father’s office was locked, but that was normal, so the tall skeleton figured that she wouldn’t be staking out in there. With every nook and cranny searched, and Sans helping out as well, it wasn’t long before the two skeletons discovered that Averia was nowhere to be found. His soul thumped painfully as the realization finally sunk in.

  
  


_ Gone… She…. _

 

Papyrus wanted to break down and start weeping, his soul crying out for its match that had vanished seemingly into thin air. He knew that it was partially his fault, having been so cold to her in the past few weeks. Of course, she would be worried about why he had suddenly changed in his demeanor without explanations. He didn’t mean anything against her, but he was so confused at his father’s words regarding their souls that he avoided her. 

 

_ I just wanted to get it all sorted out in my head, to figure out how to make myself a great- no, the BEST soulmate I could. I wanted to know how soulmates worked! I wanted… I wanted her to be happy… And all I did was… was…. _

 

Papyrus fell to his knees, tears beginning to stream from his sockets as he heaved for breaths he didn’t need. Sans knelt next to him, trying to calm his brother down from the frantic wheezing that took over his brother so suddenly. His soothing words and reassurances fell on deaf metaphorical ears; however, as Papyrus’ soul would not be soothed.

 

He was vaguely aware that he had fully collapsed into the carpet of the living room, curling in on himself as pain washed over him over and over again. He felt as though his soul was going to explode or tear itself into thousands of shards to rip through his body. He felt betrayed, and yet at the same time, mournful.

 

_ Averia, I failed to protect you from the one thing I thought would be safe, and that was  _ **_myself_ ** _ … I didn’t even realize that I had hurt you, but I’ve realized it too late…. _

 

It took a few minutes, but eventually, Papyrus lifted his skull from the carpet to look at Sans, his orange-tinted tears still spilling over his cheekbones. His soul tugged in his ribcage, urging him outside to look for her, but the sight of his brother gave him pause. Sans looked incredibly guilty for some reason, even as he was trying to comfort his brother on the floor. Before he could ask anything, Sans let out a sigh.

 

“I know what you’re thinking, bro,” he spoke softly, skull drooping in a somewhat melancholy fashion. “Why wasn’t I here, with Averia? Well… I have no excuse, heh. I went to Grillby’s and got some food because I was hungry, and now she’s gone. I should have stayed and watched her, I know.”

 

“But do you know why she might have left us?” Papyrus asked, sitting up a little to look at his brother closer. “She seemed fine when I left her this morning, and aside from her feeling lonely from lack of company, why would she leave? Averia knows it is not safe out there for her, and we have told her that she needs to be here with us for protection!” Sans flinched at his brother’s words and stood up hastily as if to avoid the subject entirely.

 

“We need to go find her or Dad’s gonna kill the both of us for losing her,” the shorter skeleton said, moving back towards the front door. Papyrus didn’t hesitate to follow his older brother, despite the concern he felt for the lack of response to his earlier questions. The two skeletons stepped outside and into the snow, searching for any tracks. Luckily, there was little snowfall in the past few minutes, so they could see a set of footprints moving towards Waterfall from the house.

 

The brothers set off for Waterfall, though the silence between them was tense and heavy. Sans appeared to be sweating profusely at the fact that neither of them had spoken to each other in a solid four minutes since walking. Papyrus was also uncomfortable, but because he wasn’t sure why his brother would be trying to hide something from him. 

 

He stopped, still in the snowy area, even though his soul pressured him to keep going onwards to find Averia. Sans took a few more steps forward but then realized his brother wasn’t with him and turned back. His hands were shoved into his hoodie pockets, and his demeanor appeared casual, but the shifting of his eye-lights and his tense body told Papyrus otherwise.

 

“Bro?” he questioned quietly. “We gotta keep moving if we want to catch up to Averia in time. Who knows where she’s ended up at this point? Can’t let her get too far ahead, or there’ll be problems.” Papyrus nodded but remained where he was standing.

 

“Why did she leave Sans?” he asked again, and Sans tensed before letting a sigh pass through his teeth. “She was safe in our house, and she had food and shelter there. I do not understand why she would want to leave it behind her….”

 

“Listen, Paps-”   
  


“Unless something happened between the two of you that you are not telling me about,” Papyrus finished, looking up to shoot a glare at Sans. The shorter of the two skeletons jolted, not expecting such a confrontation so suddenly from his brother. Shortly afterward, he relaxed slightly; his skull features drooping into a small smile of defeat.

 

“Heh…,” he said softly, scratching the back of his skull. “I didn’t expect you to latch on to what I was up to so quickly, Papyrus… You’re a lot more perceptive than you let on, huh? Guess that I shoulda known….” He let out another sigh and started walking again, this time with Papyrus following him closely.

 

“I was talking to Averia earlier before I went out to Grillby’s,” he started. “I was… less than friendly to her, and I may have told her some things that upset her. Like, uh… if she ever thought about hurting you, that I would make sure she had a bad time and that Averia should be careful about how she treats souls….” Papyrus stared at his brother, both angry and amazed that Sans would threaten Averia like that.

 

“Sans, I am not a babybones anymore,” Papyrus said, anger coloring his voice and his soul. “I am capable of taking care of myself, and I trust Averia! She wouldn’t-”

 

“You trust a  _ human _ with your  **_soul_ ** ?” Sans cried incredulously. “Papyrus, before a few weeks ago, you had no idea about anything to do with soulmates or anything like that. Hell,  **_I_ ** didn’t know anything about soulmates! But you barely know about Averia, and now she’s suddenly so trustworthy that you would let her have your  **_soul??_ ** Do you realize how  _ ridiculous _ that sounds?” 

 

Papyrus placed his hands on Sans’ shoulders, stopping him from walking for just a moment. He was looking the elder of the two squarely in the eye sockets with a seriousness that the shorter skeleton hadn’t seen often. The grip on his shoulders was tight and told him that there was nothing to be joked about.

 

“Sans,” Papyrus said, not knowing at first what to say. “I trust Averia with my soul because she has done the same for me with hers. She trusts the both of us, really, and she would not just decide to harm us all of a sudden! I know that, and I wouldn’t expect anything to shift in her suddenly. But right now, we need to go and find her before something horrible happens!”   
  


Sans looked like he was about to argue this with Papyrus, but the taller skeleton shook his skull. He let go of his older brother’s shoulders, and stood straight, putting his hands on his pelvis, right about where his hips would be if he had them. He took in a calming breath that he didn’t need, to steady himself, and continued.

 

“I will further explain souls to her at a later time, once she is safe with us  _ at home _ ,” he stressed. “And I will make sure that both Averia and I are up to date on whatever we need to know about soulmates and bonding and whatever else we need to do. I have already been reading a good deal about the subject, and I think that she will be most impressed with how I have studied! The Great Papyrus will not fail in this endeavor to make his soulmate happy!”

 

Sans blinked up at his brother, who was now standing in his confident pose, a laugh echoing through the trees. He let out a chuckle and started moving again, now searching through the brush of Waterfall in search of Averia. Papyrus also resumed doing so, though neither of them called out to her, knowing it would bring unwanted attention to them and her.

 

The pair combed each section, hoping that each rock would be hiding a human woman behind it, or that the echo flowers would tell them she had passed. Nothing. Papyrus felt in his soul that she was somewhere nearer than she had been before, but he was still panicking over her disappearance.

 

_ She cannot have gone too far, could she? Averia isn’t very fast or strong, and she also has not eaten in the past several hours, as it is very close to dinner time. I hope that Undyne hasn't seen her, and I would not wish that she fell somewhere and got herself hurt. It would- _

 

Papyrus felt the pain in his soul before anything else, a sudden sharp stab that nearly knocked him off of his feet. Sans did his best to steady his brother, despite the height and weight difference. Both were heartily confused by this sudden bout of stumbling, but before Sans could ask what the matter was, there was a loud shriek of fear nearby.

 

Both skeletons reacted before they bothered questioning who it was that was screaming, as both know the answer already. They pushed through tall grass and hopped over boulders, hoping that they weren’t too late to stop what was going on. The sight that greeted them, once they reached the place where there had been screaming, was enough to make Papyrus’ soul leap into his non-existent throat with fear.

 

Averia was lying on the ground, bloodied and shaking, a spear through her left leg, and Undyne was standing over her, ready to strike.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter is put up! We get to meet another classic character in the next one, though she's teased here! 
> 
> Come bother me on [my blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)!!


	23. Rescue Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Averia is caught in some trouble with Undyne. Sans and Papyrus realize her presence is becoming more of an issue in the Underground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: There is brief mention of blood and fighting in this chapter, reader discretion is advised.

Averia knew in her soul that she should have stayed in the house and just waited for Papyrus to return so that she could tell him what Sans had done. Her soul had been uneasy from the moment she left, and now she utterly hated herself for doing that. Especially now that she was running for her life, being hunted down for her soul, just like it had been long ago when she had first fallen Underground.

 

Breaths came in ragged pants as Averia crashed through Waterfall as quickly as she could manage. Her arms and legs pumped furiously, and she wasn’t sure she had ever run this fast in her life before now. Grass that was as tall as she was whipped at her face and some of it left sharp lines across her cheeks and neck. She was sure that she couldn’t run too much longer, and Averia knew it was only a matter of time.

 

A crazed woman with a bright red ponytail and shining blue-gray armor and magical spears was chasing Averia. If her life wasn’t weird enough to be living with three magical skeletons, this certainly brought it up to a new level. The woman hadn’t even really introduced herself, just started speaking about seven souls and how a “King Asgore” would become like a god to break a barrier of some sort.

 

She had then proceeded to hurl spear after spear at Averia, leading to where she was currently, running away for fear of her own life. Averia was  wishing she listened to her soul now, as several spears had already cut into her skin, making her bleed on the ground. The pain was overridden, however, by the fact that adrenaline was coursing through every single pore in Averia’s body, urging her forwards lest she pays with her life.

 

The woman pursuing her was insistent on taking her soul, much like other monsters that came after her, but  _ more _ persistent. Teal spears rained from the sky and came up from the ground, only giving Averia a few second's notice before she had to dodge them. The injury on her foot from earlier was throbbing as well, slowing her down, and she stumbled a lot more than she would have liked.

 

_ Where is Papyrus? I would have thought that he was going to be on patrol today, but he should be done by now! I can’t keep running forever, and I most certainly don’t want to fight this monster! What do I do, what do I  _ **_do_ ** _?? _

 

Before Averia could entertain that thought for too much longer, she found that a spear rose up from the ground, piercing through her left leg painfully. A shriek fell from her lips, and she stumbled, the spearhead and its staff breaking from its spot in the ground. Her right shoulder hit the ground with a painful crack, a sharp jolt searing through her arm and right side. 

 

Averia gasped in pain, trying to get up, trying to save herself, but the heavy clanking of armor stopped her. She managed to flip herself over, albeit with an immense amount of pain, coming face to face with her hunter. The armor gleamed magnificently in the light emanating from Waterfall, though whoever was in the suit glared at her with devilish intentions.

 

“Seven human souls,” the woman said again, her voice reverberating through the metal eerily. “Seven human souls, and then King Asgore will become a god, able to break the barrier to free all of monsterkind from the Underground. You are the only thing that stands in our way from freedom, human, and I intend to fix that problem right now!” Another teal spear appeared in her hand, and she raised it above her head to land the killing blow.

 

Averia could feel herself shaking, though she could no longer tell if it was from pain, fear, adrenaline, or some wicked combination of the three. She wanted to move, to run away, but she was helpless. Just a skinny little human trying to preserve its miserable existence, speared through and unable to move. Her breathing hitched, and she could feel tears beginning to well up in her eyes, panic surging into her throat.

 

“ **_UNDYNE, NO!!!_ ** ” a familiar voice cried out, and the woman’s head snapped around just in time to dodge a bone that suddenly jutted out from the ground. Averia was too frightened to move, and with the pain mounting in her body, she wasn’t sure if she even could manage it. A pair of boney hands wrapped around her midsection, and suddenly, she was being dragged away from the woman, Undyne.

 

The sudden change in movement and position pulled roughly on the skin surrounding the spear embedded into her leg. A flash of fiery pain shot directly up into Averia’s leg, and she cried out, though her voice cracked and broke midway through. Whoever it was that holding her flinched and propped her up gently against a nearby rock. A pale, grinning face entered her vision, though her tears blurred it.

 

“Sorry, kiddo,” Sans’ deep voice said, barely cutting through her panic. “Had to get you outta the way, these fights can get pretty intense, and you’re already really beat up. We’re going to take a shortcut, okay? Hang on tight.” His hoodie-clad arms came around her shoulders, hugging her close to his body, then the world fell into sudden blackness.

 

Papyrus, while Sans had been in charge of moving Averia to safety, took care of grappling with Undyne to buy them time. He had already been launching bones at her, a combination of regular white and blue, to keep her moving. She wasn’t the captain of the Royal Guard for nothing though, as she didn’t slow down, even with the heavy armor.

 

“Papyrus, what the  _ hell _ ?” she cried out, materializing a spear and throwing it at the skeleton with accuracy that nearly took his arm off, had he not dodged it. “That’s a human!! That’s our ticket to freedom right there, and you’re not just going to give it up, and to  _ protect it too _ ?? Did you hit your skull or something?! This is exactly the sort of thing you’re training for, and you are actively fighting _ against  _ it??”

 

The skeleton dodged another barrage of spears coming at him, and he materialized his bone spear to grapple with Undyne hand-to-hand. He charged in quickly, catching Undyne by surprise and clashed his spear up against hers. She went to strike at his skull from the left side, but he formed a small ramp downwards to the left, cupping the spear with his left palm to keep his phalanges out of the way, and her spear’s shaft slid harmlessly down his own. 

 

“You don’t understand, Undyne!” he cried as he tried to hit her ribs on the left side of her body, which was exposed by her last attack. She blocked it, her spear pointing straight up and down, and landed a kick to Papyrus’ floating ribs, sending him reeling. A snarl echoed in her helmet, and she swung the blunt end of her spear, aiming for the top of his head. Papyrus barely managed to block it with his spear in both hands, pressing upwards, then to the right to put the spear’s butt into the ground.

 

Undyne headbutted Papyrus roughly, and he fell back, clutching his skull with one hand before he recovered swiftly. He brought up his spear, and she charged in, aiming for his head again, then quickly switching out of the feint into a jab at his ribs. Papyrus blocked the attack and turned to the side, allowing Undyne’s momentum to carry her past him. She came at him again, raising her spear to strike his foot, though she missed, and her spear got stuck in the mud. Cautiously, he approached Undyne, uncertain of what she might do next.

 

“Why are you protecting them?? Why are you fighting me for their own sake??  **ANSWER ME, DAMN IT!!** ” she roared, materializing a second spear and dispersing the first. Papyrus let out a surprised sound as he attempted to block a jab from the new spearhead, but he quickly pulled his spear around to knock hers to his left side. He took the blunt end of his bone spear and slammed it into her chest plate, knocking her off balance even though there was little damage.

 

“ _ She is my  _ **_soulmate_ ** , Undyne!!” he roared back, managing to come in and shoulder check her so that she fell straight back onto the ground. His magic was flaring up, and he used a blue attack to lock Undyne into place, hefty enough that she squawked in surprise. His bone spear was aimed at her chest plate, the spiked end pressed lightly against the metal. Papyrus could feel his right eye socket itching a little bit, and he knew that the magic flare must have illuminated it enough for it to glow.

 

“She is my soulmate,” he repeated, his voice taking a steady, low tone that surprised both himself and Undyne. “And I will do whatever it takes to protect her from anything that may come harm her, regardless of who stands in my way. Averia is  _ not _ to be taken to King Asgore, and she  _ will _ **_not_ ** be removed from my care! Do you understand me, Undyne?” 

 

Undyne hesitated, then began to laugh, removing her helmet carefully as she lay on the ground. Papyrus flinched at the sudden change of mood, and dispersed his magical spear, stepping away from her. The fish woman stood up, shaking her hair out from how it had been in the helmet, and putting her gauntlet-covered hands on her hips.

 

“You’re kidding me, right?” she said, grinning to bare her sharp teeth at the skeleton. “A human falls into the Underground, the  _ one thing _ we need to get out of here, and you’re telling me that it’s your  _ soulmate _ ? I don’t believe it! Of all the things-!!” 

 

She cut herself off, laughing heartily again, and doubling over as best as she could in the heavy armor. Papyrus shifted anxiously, wanting to finish this interaction so that he could attend to Averia. Her wounds had looked severe, and judging by the fact that Sans hadn’t returned to this spot yet, it was bad enough that he was afraid to leave her for the moment. 

 

Undyne finally stood up straight, wiping a few tears from her good eye and smiling wide. The fish woman let out a sigh and shook her head before she moved closer to Papyrus and clapped him firmly on the shoulder. She appeared to have recovered and was no longer angry with him, but still seemed not to believe his words. The smile she was wearing was broad but seemed to be a bit too tense to be legitimate.

 

_ Who here really would believe a story like that, though? I haven’t encountered too many monsters who have soulmates, and it does not sound like anything but a poor excuse. I sometimes wonder if it is true myself, based on how little I know…. _

 

“So, the little human’s name is Averia, huh?” she said, pulling Papyrus closer to her by winding an arm around his shoulders, the heavy metal weighing him down and preventing any movement. “Sounds like you two have a history together already. How long has she been down here, hiding out at your place? Have you been  _ taking care _ of her?”

 

“A-almost two years now,” Papyrus stammered, a little flustered at the implications of Undyne’s statement and looking away for a second. Undyne let out a low whistle, her eyebrows going up in shock as she thought about his speech.

 

“ _ Damn _ , I missed a human being in the Underground for almost _ two years _ ??” she asked incredulously. “I gotta step up my human’ hunting game and the security around here. Maybe I should try to convince Sans to be a sentry, too….” Papyrus pushed her arm off of his shoulder as she thought through her next course of action to face her.

 

“Averia is not to be taken to the King, Undyne,” he said firmly. “I… I won’t allow it!” He straightened his spine to stand as tall as he could, even though he was nervous at confronting the very captain of the Royal Guard. The fish woman looked at him skeptically and folded her arms in front of her.

 

“Papyrus,” she said coolly. “You do realize that as a part of the Royal Guard, that is your  _ job. _ Capturing humans is in the description, and by not doing that, you’d be committing treason against the King.” He shuffled in his spot, uncomfortable with the idea of turning his back on all monsterkind and being called a traitor. However, he was equally, if not more uncomfortable with the thought of turning Averia in, having her slaughtered, and using her soul.

 

“Yes, but I….” He couldn’t think of anything to say in response to Undyne’s statements. He knew that information and had known it for longer than he let on to anyone, including his family. It was something he grappled with a lot, trying to figure out how to fulfill his dreams, but keep humans who were like Averia safe. Undyne let out another sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose.

 

“Look,” she started. “I know that soulmates are a huge deal with monsters, hell,  _ I’ve _ been looking for my soulmate forever. If you’re going to try and make this work, then I better not see you slacking off at all! If she ends up in danger and hurt after this, I’m gonna hold you responsible! Got it?” Papyrus was shocked at the sudden change of attitude towards leaving a human alive, but he stood straight and saluted Undyne almost out of reflex.

 

“Y-yes ma’am! I will take full and utter responsibility for Averia’s condition! Thank you, Undyne!” he cried, smiling wide and his soul beginning to feel a tiny bit more relaxed than it had before now. Averia would be safe from the Royal Guard, at least for the time being, and now he could breathe a little better, though he didn’t need to. Undyne laughed and pulled him into a headlock to noogie him, making Papyrus cry out in surprise.

 

“You’re really lucky that you’re just a sentry who hasn’t taken the oath for the Royal Guard yet, punk!” she shouted, digging her metal-clad knuckles into the top of Papyrus’ skull with great vigor. He gripped at her arm in an attempt to get her to release him as the metal was making the action quite painful, though not entirely intolerable.

 

“Please do not noogie the skeleton!!” he shouted, though she only proceeded to continue with enthusiasm, laughing all the while. Suddenly, there was the sound of a teleport nearby, and Undyne released Papyrus to let him stand up straight. They both looked to see Sans, standing nearby, blue-tinted sweat dripping down his skull. His hands were behind his back, not in his pockets like usual, and his whole body was tense as if he was coming with bad news.

 

Papyrus felt a spike in terror in his soul, and he took a step towards his brother warily, hoping that everything would be fine. Sans’ grin was taut, not relaxed, and lazy as it usually was. That only served to worsen his fears, and he took a careful step towards the shorter skeleton.

 

“Sans,” Papyrus said carefully, watching as his brother flinched. “What is it? How is Averia doing?” There was a long, pregnant pause, and Papyrus’ soul fluttered with anxiety, knowing that its match was injured. He walked quickly over to Sans’ side, and when his brother wouldn’t look at him, he knew it was going to be bad.

 

“How…,” he started again, then cleared his non-existent throat to remove the shakiness that had been in that single word. “How bad is it…?” Sans let a small sigh pass through his teeth, and he pulled his hands from behind his back. If Papyrus had a stomach, it would be churning with sickness and shock at the sight presented to him.

 

Sans’ hands were stained a dark red, his phalanges dripping with Averia’s blood, each drop hitting the ground with a soft sound. Papyrus seized his brother’s wrists to assess how much there was just on his hands. Too much, far too much for it to be healthy for her to have lost this much blood.

  
“It’s bad, bro,” Sans said, his voice low and unnaturally severe. “She needs our help, and she needs it  **_now_ ** .”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: More blood will be seen in the next chapter, reader discretion is advised.
> 
> I have returned with a new chapter!! Do enjoy it!!
> 
> Come bother me on [my blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/creative-poptart)!!


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